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Christmas is here! It is so exciting to see children's eyes light up as they join in all the celebrations. Christmas really is a time for celebrating and not just on your own, but with friends and family. Christmas is a great time for families to do things together. Here are a few ideas of what you can do, as a family, to make Christmas more special.
Okay, so most people decorate their homes. But why not do it with a difference this year? You can create your own decorations. Spend an evening, or even a whole day, making decorations together and working out where to put them.
At Christmas perfectly "normal' people become "strange'. Some houses are decorated with lights on the outside; others have lights covering their houses and gardens. Go for a walk or a drive and judge who has the nicest lights or who wins the prize for the most lights.
It's a well-known fact that most Dads, and indeed most men, are allergic to shopping. This severe medical condition is thought to worsen after marriage. It is also a fact that children also have a low threshold for shopping after which they can be seen lying around on the floor or protesting with every step taken.
Unless you are a Dad who has resorted to internet shopping or catalogue buying, why not take the kids to the shops and do the "Let's buy some presents for Mum' thing. Better still, choose a time when Mum can sit at home and do nothing. After all she will spend plenty of time over Christmas doing something for everyone else. That hour or two that she spends alone, while you're out shopping, will probably be one of the best presents she gets.
Go through the alphabet together and think of a "Christmas thing' beginning with each letter. For example:
A - Angels B - Bells C - Christmas tree D - Donkey
If you are already tired of hearing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas' or "The 12 days of Christmas', why not work together as a family to re-write them. You could make your own version of "The 12 days of Christmas', just for your family!
Now many people do it (brave souls that they are). But you can do it as a family. After all Christmas is the time for families to have fun together. Let your hair down and make sure you laugh a lot. And if that hasn't convinced you, you could even make some money out of it, or at the very least get a free mince pie!
Well, everybody else is holding parties. But you can make yours one with a difference. Get the whole family involved in organising it. Why not have a themed party. Here are some fun ideas:
1. A colour theme party. Every person comes wearing bright colours, but here is the catch ... they can only eat food of the colours that they are wearing. You can bake bread with food colouring to make it blue, and use your imagination to see how you can turn ordinary food into colourful displays.
2. A tube party. Everybody has to come dressed up as the name of a tube station (Angel, King's Cross, White City, Tower Hill, Green Park ... there's enough names to get you thinking!)
3. Have a progressive supper. For this you need to group together with a few other families. You can start at one house and the host there provides the pre-meal drinks and nibbles. Then everyone moves to the next house for the starter. Move again for main course, pudding, and finally desserts. If you are really brave and your children are a bit older, you can have a regressive supper. Yup, you've guessed it - do the same but in reverse order.
4. Board games. The guests bring their favourite board games.
Buy a candle making kit and make some candles. Or buy some candles, melt them down and remould them. Not for the fainthearted and certainly not one to leave the kids doing alone!
You probably used to send them when you were younger. Maybe now you've resorted to the "do it on a computer and print 100 copies off for friends, but run to the bookshop the day before Christmas and buy a nice one for your pastor'. But why not work together as a family to create your own unique cards for your nearest and dearest. It'll bring the family closer together and others will appreciate the thought.
Put on a Christmas Panto and invite your neighbours. If you have enough talent you could even make money from it. If it's really dire people will pay you to stop. If this is more stress than you can cope with it, why not run a Christmas Karaoke night. Don't worry if you don't know all the words to the song, I'm sure most people won't notice if you just sing la-la-la-la-la-la. If you've been in Kensington Temple for a while, you could just sing in tongues.
Go get a whole load of Christmas movies and watch them!
Yes, nobody else smiles at Christmas time. Walk around the shops with a huge smile on your face wishing people a Happy Christmas. You'll enjoy the festive reactions.
Dress up members of your family as Christmas objects (like Christmas trees, or angels) using household items. Items required:
1. Toilet paper (clean) 2. Coloured paper 3. Kitchen foil 4. Face paints
Blindfold the family and get them to test different festive foods. See if they can guess which is which.
Pull together all the bad jokes in the Christmas crackers and send them to the worship leader for use in next year's Christmas concert. See if you can make up some of your own too!
If you can think of any creative ideas better than these then you should be working in the children's department.
From everyone in the children's department - Merry Christmas!
