How to keep Christmas special as the kids get older

[Curiousitykillsthecat]

Hello!
Now that my kids are tweens and early teens, I am looking for ideas to keep Christmas special and keep a bit of the magic. Many of the things we used to do e.g. see Santa, etc are things they've grown out of now and I'd love some ideas please. I love the build up to Christmas and this year I feel a bit forlorn that it's not as it was and need some inspiration!

If you've not already found it, you might like to look at the topic

Christmas Forum | Mumsnet | Mumsnet

where you will find loads of inspiring threads!

'Special' for you or your kids?

I think you have to let it go!
If you keep forcing activities etc it turns into loads of pressure to enjoy things!
My teens (sound slightly older than yours) still love Christmas but I think they would be mightily pissed off if I started dragging them to events every weekend in December, they still want to chill with their friends really.
We do one Christmas Market as a family and that's about it for planned activities.

Both.

My two still like doing a Christmas lights walk, we have done a Christmas show/pantomime the last couple of years and they have enjoyed that. We keep the tradition of decorating the tree together, watch Christmas films, but they also get time to do what they want with friends etc

Sadly the time just naturally comes when you have to drop it. My older DC are 12, 13 and 14 and they no longer want to come to most Christmas events with youngest DC. They don’t mind the illumination events, you know with lanterns and such and they’re usually happy to come along to the cinema regardless of film so Christmas cinema trips are good. They also gladly still help with Christmas baking and choosing the Christmas tree each year.

What I would also say is Christmas markets can be nice with older kids, ice skating too.

DC 12, 14 & 15

Christmas shopping - for them to buy for each other & other family members. Go for lunch or coffee & cakes etc.

Seeing the Christmas lights at a nearby village & a latern parade elsewhere.

Going out for meal with grandparents etc

Ice skating - semi successful.

Pantomime - pretty successful.

We have a local panto that is really good, and we enjoy going to that each year.

we do still do a FC visit, because my eldest is learning disabled and enjoys it - younger 2 (both teens themselves) come along happily to share a family day out, and I try to find one that is a good day out, not just a FC visit.

Winter/Christmas lantern places can be good. We have a local-ish one that we all enjoy, and also go to see the lantern festival at Longleat each year.

That all fills the time quite successfully! With this trips, plus family visits and stuff at home like a movie night or making mince pies, that works quite well. We also decorate the Christmas tree as a family (each have our own decorations that we put on)

We stopped the pantos but started going to the theatre. Mostly musicals.
Getting the tree is always a big deal.
Going for a family walk before the big meal (or after if you have it early enough), or on Boxing Day.
Thing is you never know what activity your kids will one day look back with fondness.

Hello we are all in our 20’s now but this is how my mum (and we) keep it special.

1. we go and see a show (not panto) but some form of something together. This year is A Christmas Carol at the local cathedral but we’ve been to Christmas light walks, reshowing of Christmas films at the cinema. Just anything local.
2. nice meal on Christmas Eve with a film. We usually have a Chinese or dominos!
3. we go to the supermarket or primark on Christmas Eve to pick out our Christmas pyjamas!

its a bit silly but it’s just enjoyable and fun

ours are all grown up now, but i still always make advent calendars for them, we always meet up just before christmas for a family meal, we do things like a Christmas Market and we always all go to the panto.

Boxing Day walk along the beach.
Ice skating may be worth a go.
My local garden centre does afternoon tea every day, which at Christmas becomes Christmas themed afternoon tea which is nice.
I remember many years ago going to the Ice Bar in London with my DD. Not Christmas themed, but cold! I don't even know if it is still there, but it was fun.
Possibly a carol concert, if they would enjoy that.
Stained glass painting workshop, or pottery painting at your local store to make a Christmas ornament.
Never too old to make paper chains, or decorate brown paper with potato print Christmas motifs to use as wrapping paper, either!

We used to go to the cinema on Christmas Eve then go out for a meal…,then go home around 8pm …..we did this for a few years on the run….a couple of times cousins and parents joined …..and then they got old enough to go the pub with their mates!

I know what you mean about it being less magical. You just have to evolve things as they get older. I also have 2 ND children so seem to always change my expectations and adapt things etc.
I think cinema sounds good. Ice skating is fun. Board games cafe, pottery painting to paint a new decoration, paint evening to paint a Xmassy scene, maybe let them have a few friends round each and let them have a little party without you, whilst you sit upstairs with a cuppa and some chocs and enjoy the sounds of fun/chaos!?

Decorate the tree together with some carols on. Festive baking. Santa Dash for charity.
Shopping trip when you give them a budget and some ideas and let them go off on their own to buy you and their siblings presents, while you sit in a coffee shop with a book?!
I also love Christmas and want it to be special but as a previous poster said, it's impossible to know which bits they will enjoy and remember fondly, and which bits they won't. Will probably be trial and error for a few years till you get it right, and soon enough they will be in the pub on Xmas eve and tiptoeing past their stockings as FC wanted to go to bed before they got in!!! 😀

Great thread, I have pre teens too & I live for Christmas 😊

The transition was a bit tricky in our house, trying to walk the tightrope between being open to continuing traditions but also sensitive to that tween/teen horror of being perceived as childish.

We switched from believing in Santa to “playing the Santa game” with a lot of nudging and winking which they’re happy with. Honestly I love this, because there’s no stress about discovery, budgets can be openly negotiated and it’s just fun now.

December is a hard, busy month. It’s dark and miserable so everyone is commuting by car, and if we leave the house, we’re always stuck in traffic. So we do as little of that as possible and focus on making it cosy and pleasant to be at home. The dc invariably have exams and assignments, often right up to the last day which some years is the 23rd so there’s not much build up any more.

We’re lucky that we all have Christmas holidays, so the week before New Year is very chilled and relaxing. In our house it’s about good food, good books, and brisk walks.

It’s not magical in the same way, but it’s still a favourite time of year.

We focus heavily on food now 😂

It depends what you have locally, but we do other festive things. Christmas Tree Festival at the local church, an outdoor hot chocolate & s'mores night at a country pub, Santa breakfast at Toby Carvery, Christmas films at the cinema, ice skating, baking. There is lots available, in our area at least!

Surely ask them what they would like to do? I wouldn't force anything. Christmas will inevitably change, you have to be OK with that and appreciate what it is like now, i.e, them not waking up at 4am!

There's loads of stuff as long as you keep an open mind that they are growing up with their own opinions, make sure you know in your own mind which are the actual important family traditions, and which bits can fall by the wayside. I've found that giving teens actual control over what events or bits they want to join in on has meant they're up for most things (I may have particularly amenable ones though!).

Mine are 15 and 16, hits are Christmas movie marathons (we include Christmas horror films as well as Home Alone and Muppets Christmas carol) in the run up. Typically highly contentious shortlisting of films, with an annual debate on whether die hard counts as a Christmas film.

Some sort of Christmas light trail is still a hit.

Christmas shopping trip, where we loudly exclaim how lovely something is if it's wanted under the tree.

We still do letters to Santa.

Still do board games, though more adult ones.

Still do a gingerbread house, but the kids organise it.

Weirdly - they really want matching family pajamas - I'm just going with it!

Thanks everyone. It's not that I want to force anything on them, I just want ideas and now I have quite a few, so thank you ☺️

My older 2 DC are similar ages and I find it hard to keep it special for them while also trying to keep the magic going for my youngest (6yo).

But last year my oldest (15) kept saying he was 'so excited' for Christmas. I was a bit baffled as to why because he never seems to want to do much at Christmas. But he told me that what he just loves at that time of year is chilled evenings with the fire on, toasting marshmallows, playing games, nice food, eating too much chocolate and the odd bit of baking! What he doesn't love is organised activity after organised activity after organised activity.

We tend to do a light trail (with friends or family members) and a show (not necessarily a Christmas themed one and usually nearer New Year) as a family and that's it. I still take my youngest to meet Santa and both my girls love ice skating. But just because my son doesn't get involved in that stuff doesn't seem to make it 'not special'. Christmas is his favourite time of year, even without the magic!