Find out what users favourite family moments are in the home with IKEA

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From snuggling on the sofa and watching a film, to reading your child a book before they go to bed, the home captures hundreds of small moments in day-to-day life that often bring a lot of joy. With the Christmas season coming up, it’s these kinds of moments that play an important part in the festivities, whether it be making mince pies in the kitchen, or ceremoniously putting the star on top of the tree. With this in mind, IKEA want to hear your favourite family moments in the home, and what makes them special.

Here’s what IKEA have to say:
“Incorporating playful elements into any room creates an inviting space for a whole host of indoor activities. Whether you’re a kid – or a kid at heart – it’s easy to turn your living room into a place for lighthearted fun! Whatever space you have to play with, planning a space where children are free to express themselves boosts their confidence.
Read your favourite book on the sofa, while the rest of the group turns dining room chairs into a game of musical chairs. Or, turn display cushions into an impromptu pillow fight. Simply add matching seating for kids and adults, then the little ones get to imitate grown-ups. Role play is great for developing their social skills. Who wouldn’t feel twenty years older sitting enjoying a cup of tea in a POÄNG chair?”

What are or have been some of your favourite family moments in the home? How have these changed as your children have grown older? Which rooms in your house remind you of the fond memories you’ve created in them? With the winter months closing in, which Christmas traditions in the home do you do as a family - and which are you most looking forward to? Perhaps you have a favourite festive film you watch every year without fail?

However big or small, share your favourite family moments in the home with IKEA on the thread below, and you will be entered into a prize draw where 1 MNer will win a £300 IKEA voucher.

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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Ikea? Several grandchildren have loved the childsized Poang chair in my house, when they’re not here a large Pooh Bear occupies it!

I love snuggling up on the sofa with my husband and children. A time to switch off from work and school and recuperate together

It's the simple moments: all watching a TV series or movie together, snacks, hot chocolate, no phones. It gets harder as they get older, and their horizons or influences broaden, but still important to simply have time together. We also have a tradition of eating out for a birthday: birthday girl/boy gets to choose - and we all enjoy the anticipation and the event. As they have grown up, baking together has been a lovely thing we share as well - though they can manage alone now, we still do it together - a lovely 'side-by-side' activity when chat and laughter seems to flow more easily.

Our kitchen is absolutely my favourite room. We've just had an extension and need to finish decorating it but I love it. We can cuddle on the sofa reading, do crafts at the table or play with toys in there. It's just wonderful!

Thursday nights are my favourite nights as we have no clubs and no homework as its all done for the week by then. This is our favourite night to have a nice tea then all watch a film together or play a board game, especially now it is cold and dark and they don't want to go out to play.

Bedtime, I can never get anything out of DD during the day but at bedtime she tells me all her news and worries and things she is thinking.
It's a lovely time to bond.

I think the most precious memories are the laughs. Usual board games around the table when one girl just makes the other giggle so much and its such an innocent, beautiful laugh. Then we're all laughing and the game is abandoned.

Christmas is a big thing for us! We make such an effort from the 1st of December with putting the tree's up with our two year old, making the house extremely cosy, putting our Christmas bedspreads on, wearing our Christmas clothing all through December - including our pj's!
Life could have been totally different back when I was pregnant with our son so each Christmas with him is a blessing! Each year we spoil him rotten & make our home a Winterwonderland! This year we're in a bigger house with lots more space so we're going to make it as magical as we possibly can - I'm currently struggling PND so we hope that Christmas might make me feel that bit better about things!

My children always decorate the bottom of the Christmas tree with clothes pegs - a tradition starting from when the eldest was two!,

My fave moment of all time was xmas day last year. I had my 10 year old and 4 week old baby with my partner. We came down around 8 am and put the tree lights on and my eldest opened her present and I just sat on the sofa with my new born son, watching my partner help our eldest put things together! Just felt so happy in our cosy home with our family completed!

Friday nights after the stresses of the week topped with 3 hours at the swimming pool for lessons... Cuddled up on sofa watching Friends and eating jacket potatoes from a bowl.

Favourite family moments at this time of year involve seasonal films such as ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ or ‘The Grinch’ whilst snuggled up on the sofa with furry throws. Chocolate or cake also feature strongly...

Choosing and decorating the Christmas tree at the beginning of December is another highlight. We play xmas songs whilst enjoying rediscovering the hodge podge of decorations accumulated over the years.

We have a big open plan living/dining/kitchen area, and the children have great fun moving the furniture around to make forts and castles: dining chairs for the walls, the blanket box as the lookout post, a fluffy blanket from the sofa for the roof.
Spatulas and wooden spoons are transformed into broadswords, to defend the fort against the marauding enemy (the dog, ahem I mean the terrifying dragon - who has her very own ladle that she wields with wild abandon!).
I love watching their imaginations transform the mundane into the magical...I just wish they'd put everything back afterwards!

One of my favourite things to do is after a family roast dinner on Sunday or at Christmas is to get a board game out. We take turns to bring one and this week I found the game of Countdown in a charity shop so we’ll be playing that. We always split into teams with children and adults in the same team to help each other out. Special family time and wonderful memories

Favourite family time used to be Friday evenings cuddled up In my bed with my children listening to stories about my childhood,watching a video, with soft drinks and a few sweets.Now it's having my granddaughters all snuggled up with me in my bed listening to stories about their mummy and daddy, watching a DVD all with a drink and a few sweets......Absolute Bliss, I love these times

I love a range of family moments - playing board games at the dining table, reading bedtime stories upstairs, snuggling on the sofa to watch a film and playing with an assortment of toys in the conservatory - we have a family home where the children are a centre of all spaces

For me putting the Christmas decorations up is always a special family moment. We let the children have a tree in their playroom, that they are allowed to decorate themselves. So tinsel, lights, baubles all get thrown at it, but only to a certain height! We listen to Christmas songs, drink hot chocolate and eat treats and mince pies. They write their letters at the table and then in the evening they both get to choose a Christmas movie to watch and we all snuggle under a duvet on the sofa. Love it!!

Christmas Eve requires me to snuggle up in bed with my arms round both children and read them How the Grinch Stoke Christmas. Said children are now on the large side so we now need to use my double bed to fit us all in but it’s still compulsory.

Now the DC are older and everyone’s flitting to and fro we enjoy having a jigsaw out on the dining room table (we normally eat at the kitchen table). Over the course of a week we’ll all grab five minutes to make progress either in pairs or individually - maybe have a go while helping a child do homework at the other end of the table - and all come together at the end of the jigsaw for a mad rush to complete.

Lego sessions and den making in the living room, craft and baking or potion making at the kitchen table. Story time in bed and also great family time is bath time, where we have some great conversations.

We love Christmas.

For me it’s about cooking for the family and watching them enjoy.

I have a stuffing roll I make every year and I prepare this in the first week of December and freeze it. It gets defrosted on Xmas Eve and then cooked .we are usually eating it into the new year with pickled onions.

The Christmas Tree used to be a lovely thing we all did together but DS no longer seems bothered although he still wants the tree up in the first week of December.

I used to love doing Lego or watching DS make various creations as it was always a huge favourite of his. As he’s got older it’s gone by the wayside in favour of his xBox bit we still keep a box of Lego and occasionally he will sit and use it.

We put low lighting on, snuggle up and just chat about our day over a hot Chocolate. Best times

Every year we make a Christmas house out of gingerbread or chocolate
We decorate it with colourful sweets
On Sunday’s my girls go to Sunday school
Today they packed 72 bags for homeless people with items to help them during Christmas holidays
Then we came home and had a vegetarian roast around our new IkEA fold down table
As a family we love dog walking our mini schnauzer Dolly and snuggling together with hot chocolate (wine for me! Lol) and playing a game or watching a Christmas film

Cuddled up on the sofa, under a blanket, watching a movie ♥️

My favourite time of year is Christmas morning. We make cinnamon buns and the whole house fills with an incredible festive aroma that gets the rest of the sleepyheads out of bed and downstairs for a champagne breakfast before the madness begins.

When it’s cold outside, cuddling up on the couch with a film and some treats