What are your Xmas traditions/crafts if you have little ones?

[Happyclappy20]

It's our first ever Xmas at home since having children and I'd like to start some Xmas traditions and some ideas (crafts) to keep them amused on Xmas day. They are 6 year old ds and 2 year old dd.

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Make Christmas cards
Make mince pies
Make gingerbread men
Make paper chain
Paint ornaments

There's loads of xmas inspired activities on Pinterest and YouTube when I looked for DD.

Just realised you have said xmas day, I'm sure their new toys will be enough on xmas day itself.

Homemade Christmas cards, Christmas tree decorations, baking

On Xmas day there'll be enough going on with their new toys I imagine!

On the first if December we have north pole breakfast, the elf arrives with the advent calendars and we go shopping for a Christmas decoration for DD

Second weekend, the decorations go up.

3rd weekend we decorate the gingerbread house.

Christmas Eve we prep food in the morning then go to either panto or cinema in the afternoon.

I host a sugar cookie decorating party once school breaks up every year, max 4 extra kids but sometimes just 1 on top of my 3. I make way too many biscuits, 5 colours of buttercream and buy out the sprinkle shelf. Kids love it! It’s actually usually DS11 who is sat there 2 hours later finishing them with me.

We bake our own pastries on Christmas Day morning. I use the JusRol brand and they're really easy for the kids to put together (2yo did it last year), then we enjoy eating them The rest of the day is playing with presents, we try to include a new game or something, which we can play together or we watch a film. Generally it's a very relaxed day. Depending if it's dry, we go out for a walk before we eat dinner too. It's nice for the kids to burn off some energy and get some fresh air.

During advent, we make Hama Bead tree decorations. I get all the beads and the picture to copy and put them in little plastic boxes, so they're all ready to go without getting everything out.

We also make gingerbread men in the run up to Christmas Day. Super easy recipe and makes about 50 little (2-bite) sized ones. The kids then help me decorate them and then we eat them over Christmas.

Oh yes, the pantomime is a favourite but on hold until DS is a little older and able to sit through it. He also gets a bit frightened by sudden loud noises. However it was a staple of my Christmas growing up.

Try amateur performances for cheaper tickets than the big theatres.

When dD was small, every year I would put a bundle of different colored strips of paper in a shoe box with a roll of sticky tape - she could make paper chains whenever she wanted and whatever colors/patterns, and also put it away when she was finished to pick up again later easily. Great one for “as and when” craft that didn’t need (much) supervision.

Always make cookies together on a Christmas Eve for Santa - I always have a half batch frozen in case we don’t have the time or energy on Christmas Eve, we can just “slice and bake” if need be.

But for Christmas Day itself, let them play with their presents or watch a Christmas movie (tv or dvd or Netflix), or help set the table etc.