activities to dilute Christmas Day stress

[onedayatatime73]

Can't go into the details of the rather 'exacting' adults who are coming so am going to concentrate on making it fun for the children

Ages are 13, 7, 5, 4, 3

So need stuff that is fun for all of them

So far have

Indoor fireworks
Trying to make homemade piñata

That's as far as I have got.

I need a couple more activities that can kill about 20 mins each. Any ideas?

Treasure hunt for chocolate coins?

Finger lights (could be out in the garden when it gets dark)
Pin the nose on Rudolph?

Face painting
Huge box of old clothes+jewellery+sun glasses for dressing up
Cookie decorating
Tape a length of old wallpaper to the floor (white side up), crayons to draw

Pin nose on Rudolph is a great shout. Can get adults to do too. Thanks all. And will keep thinking.

Giant cracker with a game in it?

Go for a walk - getting out of the house is a must on Christmas Day!

Indoor fireworks????! Tell me more!

Gwt rhe 13 7 and 5 yea olds (at least) to design and creat place names for the table and a posh menu card either on paper on or the pc. Mine love that.

Early evening walk with glow bands or sparklers?

Oh and a table decoration. Get some.oasis in an old jar and send the kidsnin to the garsen for green stuff. Add a few christmassy bits and let then create a table decorations each. Mine do these for 2 grandmas and great grandma,s place setting and they take them.home at rhe end. (Thwyight not be as exacting as your though!!!! Although mil struggles to humiur kids to be fair...the first time they did.it oh so proudly and she said 'what do i need a.menu for?")

MrsSmith you can get indoor fireworks from Amazon or Hawkins Bazaar, plus several other places. When I was a child in the late 40s abd 50s we always had them at Christmas. Even then they were not exactly spectacular, now because of the health and safety kill-joys they are even tamer. Nevertheless, they are entertaining; my DGCs love them, particularly the 'Snake' which emits very long turd-like and snakey coils to everyone's awe and delight.

get a pack of christmas crackers with a silly game on the back, and actually play it!
Do a Christmas pass the parcel, with little forfeits ( saying a chistmas rhyme, or something) and tiny gifts/sweets in each layer

Thanks Tricky , I'm off for a browse.

These are fab and very easy to make, just buy in the ingredients and let them loose! www.redtedart.com/2012/12/05/gingerbread-house-ideas/

Card games, uno is a good one or snap, happy families etc. The 2 smallies can be on a team with an older child.
Watching a family movie.
Jigsaws
lego
Basically things that can be done sitting at the table, they're calmer and quieter.

Crackers with some kind of game in them are quite handy too. We had windup reindeer racing last year - the grownups loved them even more than the dcs

Games, my SIL has heaps of them.

• Get an empty cardboard cereal box. Each person takes a turn standing with legs shoulder width apart, hands behind back and you have to bend over and pick up the top edge with your teeth. Keep repeating reducing the height of the box. Funny to see who wins as very unpredictable - if a mum does yoga she goes well or the older kid who does gymnastics or the little kid cos they have such a low centre of gravity.

• in teams you each get a toilet roll. Race to make one team member a snowman!

• get a dice, hat, scarf, gloves, a mars bar and blunt knife. All sit round in a circle. Throw a 6 and you put on hat, scarf, gloves and can cut off small bits of mars bar till next person gets a 6 and swaps with you.