My 12yo will be home alone Christmas Eve. Any ideas?

[HappyHollyween]

For the first time ever (I know - I've been very lucky so far!) i have to work Christmas Eve. I'm also working the 23rd but DD's friend's mum has offered to take DD and friend shopping that day.

DD has always said she loves Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day as it's just us two, it's really relaxed and there is the excitement of 'just one more sleep!' We usually do some wrapping, karaoke, film and snack fest, walk with a scavenger hunt (still loves these at her age!) or a drive into town to look at the lights. She's quite disappointed this year that she'll be on her own.

She'll likely not get out of bed until 10am at the earliest and I will be home around 4.30pm. I was hoping to leave her a list of ideas she can crack on with to still enjoy the day without me.

E.g. I can leave her a Christmas Eve box - she can have a nice bath with smellies.

I can leave her some Christmas films to watch.

She can wrap the presents she bought the day before with her friend.

She can build a gingerbread house.

Any other ideas that your tweens like doing around Christmas? These all sound like things she'll probably get bored of doing on her own and will likely just sit on her phone all day! I want her to enjoy Christmas Eve just as much as she normally does and hopefully the day will go by quickly for her until I'm home.

I love the gingerbread house idea. Tell her you'll take it to family house on Christmas Day so it's a nice challenge for her. Might make her take lots of time over the decorations. You can be all surprised and heap praise on her when you get home then do your usual Christmas Eve stuff!

So in my house the day for dad would go like this:

10am crawl out of bed
10.05 breakfast (can you leave croissants/pastries) cereal fruit etc
10.15 in front of tv with phone messaging friends
4.45 - oh mum your home?

This would be her perfect day as I wouldn’t be nagging to get off the phone 😂

How about hiding away one of the speciality advent calendars - make up/beauty treats if she’s at that stage, stationery one if not? 24 gifts in total, so you could set an alarm to go at 20 min intervals through the day and she can open a new treat each time. If it’s makeup she could spend time between looking up YouTube and practising, if it is stationery then she can be creative with each item. Paperchase have one out just now - I’d love to spend a day savouring each new stationery item! Or you could create your own full of a range of items you know she’d enjoy - hot choc sachet, bath bomb etc....

Gavisconismyfriend - wow - just looked at the Paperchase advent calendar - it's just my sort of thing! Have ordered one with a £6 discount. Thanks for mentioning it!

This business of trying to engineer it so one’s children never ever have to deal with any chance of being a bit lonely/bored/upset/feeling any emotion that isn’t 100% positive, actually hinders them from learning resilience

Ironic, because that is exactly what this thread is full of. Suggestions of laying out a fancy breakfast, creating a scavenger hunt all over the house, leaving out an all day pamper package... It is a lot of work for the OP to implement before a full day's work because the child simply doesn't want to be bored at a childminder for a few hours.

No not really. It doesn’t have to be a lot of work or hassle - any number of small and easy suggestions have been made. The important thing is showing that whilst it might be disappointing for her now, when she’s just discovered this, it can still be made fun and Christmassy and a lovely, cosy day.

I don’t advocate being horrible to children and disregarding their preferences entirely when those preferences are age-appropriate, perfectly fine and reasonable and not actually an issue to meet. Since DD doesn’t like going to childminder but does like being at home, it would be very unkind for her mother to not listen to that and make her go, when she’s perfectly capable of looking after herself at home and it would cost the OP money. That’s not equivalent by any means.

OP, I really wouldn't worry about planning loads of activities for her. Let her have a lie in then laze around in her PJ's watching movies and messaging her friends. Make sure the fridge is stocked with nice food that doesn't require a lot of preparation, some chocolate, maybe some popcorn. If you're home by 4.30 that means you'll still have hours together to do fun christmassy things so she won't be missing out. Don't overthink it.

I like the idea of leaving her a nice bath bomb so that she can have a soak and the gingerbread house for something to do. I’d also get a nice pre-packed sandwich from the supermarket the day before such as a turkey and stuffing one and leave her a mini pot of pringles. Other than that I’d leave her to do her own thing. There’s always good tv on Christmas Eve and it’s actually nice being on your own for a bit so that you can watch what you want.
As she’s housebound during the day how about taking her out for a treat in the evening of her choice - meal, panto, cinema and soak in the Christmas atmosphere. No point trying to make it exactly like your usual Christmas Eve as it won’t be so try something different.

Not sure why people need to be sanctimonious about the op dd being left alone
My ds liked staying in himself at that age. Good job really as we weren’t knee deep in other options like some of the posters on here must be .
Op you’ve had some really good suggestions here . I’m sure you’ll get something nice arranged.