I'll be participating in a Zoom Christmas Carol party, own mince pies and beverage of choice, choosing carols before hand so we don't all choose the same one!
I want to make a fireplace out of wallpaper-covered boxes this year (google them , they're fab!) with our 9yo. I made him a felt fire and logs a couple of years ago when he got obsessed with camping, so I can put that in the fireplace, and also decorate the top with twinkly lights. The fire is about a foot high.
During lockdown i got together with a friend, her sister and sister's daughter and bff to sew via Zoom. We are all using different media (corochet, knitting, quilting, felt...) and we just chat about what we're making, who it's for, any problems/advice about it. Plus random conversations about our youthful drinking exploits (we're all 45+), feminism, Netflix, books we're reading, politics, mental health - eveerything. ANYWAY! we have decided to make one thing for each person for their Christmas tree, so 4 things each. It can be personal, topical, referencing something tha's popped up during the last 6 month' of us zooming. We're also going to create a nativity scene out of whatever we like for a laugh. I might steal from DS' massive store of looroll tubes. One of us is a painter and may paint a scene. My friend is in a far away country which is still in lockdown and doesn' t have the shops we do, so might make her nativity out of food one day, and just take a photo of it!
Basically, anything creative that we can share on zoom. I have to say that i'm in spain, three in UK and my friend is in Colombia, so zoom is our best bet!
As December approaches, I always tell my son to look out for his first house decoration (not shop, they're out already!) and he'll shout excitedly that he's seen FC climbing a rope ladder dangling off someone's balcony in mid-Novermber, or whenever.
If there's a particularly sunny day during the hoidays, we'll go down to the beach with a flask of hot chocolate and some beach toys (football, rugby ball, kite, frisby etc) and blow off steam with the dog. Often we'll invite another famiy or two. We played musical chairs last year with small items (eg a sock, small beach towel, scarf) to jump on when the music stopped, all safe soft landings!
I might make a treasure map or scavenger hunt for our town once the decorations are up and kids are bored over the holidays. They have 20 days this year and being cooped up at home will be dreadful for all of us, so a socially distanced scavenger hunt might be a nice way to run around the (pedestrianesed) bit of town looking for the angel in the antique shop window, count the Christmas lights in the cathedral square, what's the soup of the day at X place.
There'll be Christmas films and blanket snuggles too, but that's no different from other years 