It’s exciting to see friends and family during the holidays. When they live out of town, however, far away from you, you’d love more than anything to invite them over for the holidays. You like to enjoy an extended visit with them, so you can catch up and tell stories of Christmas past.
But what if you have nothing else to talk about? What then?
Don’t let the excitement of seeing loved ones wane. The best way to keep your guests’ visit engaging and interesting is to plan activities that they would enjoy. Activities provide two-fold benefits, too. They keep the younger guests away from the house when the older guests want to rest. They also provide entertainment for the older guests when it’s too late for the young ones to stay out of bed.
You need to start planning now. But don’t let the planning bother you. Let this article plan out your activities. All you have to do is choose which activities will work for your guests and then put them together to create a cohesive schedule.
Activities You Can Do at Home
At home, there are many activities you can do with your guests. You can get them into gift-wrapping, especially if you’ve left out some gifts that you haven’t wrapped yet. Or, you can let the kids wrap the gifts in their own creative ways.
Encourage your guests’ creativity with crafting activities. Provide them with the materials they’ll need. You can suggest Christmas tree decorations as their theme. However, this activity might work only for the ladies and little girls.
You can also start a house decorating activity. If you haven’t put out the decorations, this could be a fun activity for everybody. Let the guys hang out the Christmas lights, indoors and outdoors. Leave the decorating to the girls. Because of their personal touch, this activity will make your guests feel at home even more.
After all the art activities, you can bake cookies and other holiday pastries for snacks. Make sure to use healthy recipes, though. It can get easy to be overstuffed with unhealthy sweets this holiday.
At night, you can sit by a bonfire or in front of a fireplace and roast some marshmallows. The kids will love it!
You can also do a movie marathon. Many heartwarming TV movies are played during Christmas time. In fact, Real Simple magazine suggests watching the Christmas classics. You can’t go wrong with them.
Activities You Can Do Outdoors
While it can be tempting to stay indoors most of the time during cold winter days, there are many outdoor activities that you and your family can enjoy. First, you can try to attend a Christmas service to remind everyone of the reason for the season. It’s also the best opportunity to show off your family to your neighbors. If you’re having your grown-up kids for the holidays, they may be glad to see old faces.
On other days, you can bring your family to enjoy outdoor winter sports. Kids mostly will love going ice skating or sledding. Ice skating is a great way to keep everybody physically active, even if it’s cold outside. As you should know, physical activity keeps the mind and body healthy.
For the grown-ups, you can go playing ice hockey. Or, take your spinning rods from the St. Croix Panfish series and invite your guests to go ice fishing. If you live near a body of water, ice fishing is a great activity that will keep you at peace while away from the “chaos” at home.
On the other hand, for the whole family, here’s what you can plan. You can take them out and tour them to see the Christmas lights in and around your town or city. If you’re leaving the kids at home, bring some champagne and make it a fun night out. Alternatively, if there’s a tree lighting ceremony at a town or city center, you can bring your guests to see it.
Seeing Christmas shows and plays at the local theater is another activity you can do with your guests or family. Often, local theaters play the Nutcracker during the Christmas season. Others meanwhile have a Christmas choir or orchestra. Musical performances provide Christmas cheer for the entire family.
Before the Year Ends
The holiday is a perfect time to wrap up the past year. It’s great to spend it with your loved ones. Make this time with them even more enjoyable. Try out these activities for the entire family.
