Christmas Fun

Why should you celebrate Christmas only at home? Do you realize that you spend more time at work with your fellow employee's than you spend with your own family? Moral is at an all time low with employers cutting staff and hours at work in order to survive in business. Let's try and boost the moral at work around the holidays, I'm going to share a few things with you to help make the workplace a little more festive.

Well now the obvious choice for fun at the office would be a party. Why not have more than one? Lets start with a cookie exchange. I know most of you have heard of this or have done it in the past but for those of you that don't know what it is I'm going to tell you how it works. The rest of you just bear with me...lol. Now what you need to do is set the amount of cookies that everyone is supposed to bring to the cookie party. Let's just set it at 3 dozen for this example. So everyone brings 3 dozen cookies and puts them on the table with everyone elses cookies. You will all go around the table with an empty paper plate and start choosing cookies from all the other plates, putting them on your plate. Don't take anymore cookies than what you brought or you will short change someone else on their cookies that they get to take home. Once you have chosen 3 dozen cookies you're done. You brought 3 dozen cookies and you take home 3 dozen cookies. The only difference is now you have an assortment of cookies. Like I said, it's not a new idea but it is fun and yummy too.

See how management feels about having a baker come in and put on a demonstration. Maybe give some tips on what to bake this holiday that may different from the norm. Maybe a cook or chef to put on a class with samples and ideas for something new at the holiday meal. This would be ideal for the work enviroment that is working many hours and very busy but would still enjoy the regular baking and cooking for the Christmas holidays.

There are many people in your area that are less fortunate than yourself. Wouldn't it be a great office activity to adopt a family and collect donations of food and gifts for this particular family in need? How about helping several families at once by purchasing several Christmas trees at the local tree farm and donate lights and ornaments to go with each tree. My company helped the local women's shelter here in town last year. As you know when a woman or her children are abused, she normally leaves with nothing but the clothes on their backs. So they are happy to receive toiletries, clothes for mom and gifts of toys or clothes for the children. Donations of food for the shelter is another option for helping those in need. The Christmas before we donated food and gifts to the boys home. So as you see there are so many organizations with those less fortunate and a lot that you can do to help. Blankets for the elderly is another good thing. Visit a nursing home and visit those who have no family. These are not only things that your workplace can do but you as an individual. The elderly in the nursing home will love your children as their own grandchildren. Take them for a visit. You'll see what I mean. Don't just wait for a holiday to return either. The best thing is you'll make their world so much brighter and you'll feel good about it.

If you're a parent, you know how excited children are about the holidays. You probably already let them help you decorate by placing ornaments on the tree and what not. I use to love that when I was little and now my job is to put the tree up and put on the lights. That's it. My children( they're grown now...but then if you follow my blog you know that) to this day come over to decorate my tree and I still have some of the ornaments they made at school when they were small children. That got me to thinking, why not allow your children not only hang ornaments but also make ornaments to decorate for the holidays as well. There are several fun and exciting projects that will allow them to show their creativity. You may have to join in on the fun with some of these projects while others you can just turn them lose.

You can easily have them make ornaments from paper or cloth material that you already have around the house. You can have them cut out small coloring book pictures and color them. There are also wooden ornaments that can be bought at the craft stores or local department stores. Have them paint them, put the date and their name on the back and you'll not only have some nice little decorations but also a very nice keepsake ornament for many years to come. There are ceramic ornaments that can be done in the same way. One nice easy and fun project I remember doing with my children is take some white felt and cut out two teardrop shapes about 3 inches in length. Once you know what we're making you can adjust the sizes accordingly. Then take some red or green felt and cut out two circles about the size of half dollars. Next cut 6 strips of black construction paper approximately 1/8 of an inch wide and an 1 1/2 in length. Take a small candy cane and paint it with white school glue. The type that drys clear. Take the candy cane and glue it to the fat side of one of the white felt teardrops with the curve of the cane up. Only glue about a half inch of the candy cane to the felt. Now glue the other teardrop on top of this one. If you haven't guessed yet, we're making a Christmas mouse. Take the two circles and arrange them toward the pointy end of the white felt until it looks like the mouse's ears. Once you have them where you think it looks right, glue them in place. Now take a felt tip pen and fill in the point to make his nose. Draw some circles for his eyes. Glue the strips of black construction paper on for his whiskers. 3 on each side. You're finished. You now have a Christmas mouse to hang on your tree by the hook in his tail. Children love this little project.

In addition to making ornaments for the tree. Have your children make some little signs to hang with Christmas sayings on them. They can be paper signs or maybe even wooden signs. Paper ones you can frame and hang or just put some on the fridge. You could even glue the paper ones to wood. Make 'em directly on the wood too. You and your children can use your imagination. These projects are easy fun and cheap. Cheap is good huh?

Anothe great project would be to have your children make a holiday centerpiece for the table. Just get some artificial flowers and a vase or bowl and have them be crafty. Try weaving some small strands of Christmas lights into the piece. Put some small gift boxes and other small ornaments that can be purchased at your local craft or dept store into the boquet. Again, imagination is the key.

These are just a few ideas that I know my children and I loved doing and it's one of those traditions that I mentioned we keep in the last article. If you don't like these ideas then do a search online for more ideas. There are all kinds of things you and your children can do. Maybe even purchase a childrens craft book at the book store or get one from a library. Whatever crafts you decide to do is of no consequense. What is important however is the special time you spent with your children doing these projects and the memories you create along the way. Just think how proud your children will be to have their creations displayed and to be able to show them off to other family members.

You never know when you're making a memory. Much Love and Many Blessings to All.

What fun activities can you incorporate into your family life that makes Christmas memorable and fun? Plenty, really. There are the traditional and the things a little bit out of the box. If you're getting everyone together for Christmas dinner, you want to provide some fun activities and games in addition to just the meal. Here are some good ideas to keep the crowd in the Christmas mood and keep them busy and diverted until the meal is ready. Family is at the core of the Christmas season, so creating fun memories with your family is always at the top of the must-do list this time of year.

If you want to do a fun family activity in the kitchen, but baking's not your thing, you can make a variety of other gift items in your kitchen. The kids love making chocolate and candy covered pretzel sticks, and you can pair those with homemade hot cocoa mix to give as gifts.

Board game fun - Bring out the most kid-like board game you have. This might be one that was just opened that morning or something you already have. Get the men in the house (not the boys, but grown men) to sit down on the floor and play the game. A great picture can be had when the fathers and grandfathers are on the living room rug playing Candyland or Chutes and Ladders. Better yet, bring out a princess game and enjoy watching the men get dressed up like princesses as the game goes on. As a secondary activity, pit the kids and dads against each other in a game of monopoly or cards. The kids can play with their dads on a team or the dads can play against the kids. Either way, it's sure to be fun. 

Tablecloth - If the children are getting restless waiting for the meal, have them decorate the tablecloth. This isn't the time, then, to put great Aunt Martha's tablecloth on the table, but something inexpensive and yet not disposable. You can keep the tablecloth from year to year and enjoy watching the progression of the children's art through the tablecloth. Be sure to have them use permanent markers and have them date and sign it, if they are old enough. If they're not, date and sign it for them. You'll want that bit of information later.

Worst presents - Who has the best story about the worst present they ever got? Before dessert have everyone share their best of the worst stories. Be sure that you don't tell the story in front of the person who gave you the worst present! What was the most interesting present you ever got? Or the best handmade present? What was the best present that came this Christmas? Dessert isn't handed out until everyone shares a story, good or bad. 

Be sure to incorporate music into your family's traditions. How about some family fun singing Christmas carols or creating your own family music CD? Record your family singing Christmas carols and use that CD as your music CD for the holidays. If you all are particularly talented, you could make these look pretty and give them as gifts.

Many children think hot cocoa is an essential part of the Christmas season. If that's the case with yours, you could start a fun family activity each year where you make a big batch of hot cocoa mix at the start of the season. Let the kids have a small cup each night before bed during the month of December and closer to Christmas, add special items to the hot cocoa, like mini marshmallows one night and whipped cream another. You can even add a couple of Hershy Kisses and stir with a candy cane for a real treat. Be sure to leave this family-made hot cocoa for Santa on Christmas Eve!

Where's Santa? - While eating dinner, have a fun activity going on that's sure to delight the children. Using a Santa hat, play a game of "where's Santa"? Surely he's back at the North Pole by now, right? Have someone start with the Santa hat and under the table, that person passes it to someone else. Everyone tries to decide where the hat is. Whoever has the hat (they can keep it in their lap while they eat) winks at someone else when they catch their eye. If someone gets winked at, they say, "Santa's lost!" and this continues, with the passing of the hat and the winking, until someone figures out where Santa is. 

Many families like to cut down their own Christmas tree. This is a really fun family activity that can add a lot to the Christmas season. Christmas tree farms are located just about everywhere. Check into a local grower's group for locations. You simply show up, grab a saw (this is mom or dad's job) and go hunting. Depending on the location of the tree farm, you might walk only a short distance, or you might have to hike up and down hills and far into the farm's reaches to find just the right tree.

Another family activity and one of my favorites is to drive around town looking at all the Christmas lights and decorations. My children are grown and married but we still all get together and keep this tradition that will be passed down to generations to come.

Start a Christmas village with your children adding a new building or trees or figurines each year. Once your children are grown have them continue to add to it each year. They can continue the tradition each year with their children and grandchildren. Believe me, it makes for great memories. Please share some of your traditions in the comment section. I'd love to read them.

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