How To Entertain Kids After Christmas
It's easy to keep your children occupied in the days leading up to Christmas. Shopping, baking, wrapping gifts and visiting Santa make these exciting days fly by quickly. But what happens after the gift bags have all been unpacked and the new toys have lost their luster? Here are 7 ideas for keeping your kids occupied and happy until school starts again.
1) Get Out Of The House
Take advantage of local points of interest, such as museums, art galleries, and zoos. If you live in a rural area, you might need to travel to the nearest city, which would be a fun experience in itself. Make a day of it; get out your new kitchen sets and pack a lunch that your kids help prepare or let them choose where to have lunch.
2) Break For Books
Visit your public library. Your kids are sure to find plenty there to inspire their imaginations. The best part is that everything is free. Let your kids check out a tote bag full of books. Some local libraries even schedule special events for kids during the holiday break, such as story hours, craft workshops or book discussions for tweens and up.
3) Play Dates
Arrange reciprocal play dates between your children and their friends. Your kids will love showing off their Christmas gifts to their pals, as well as playing with the toys their friends received. Suddenly, everything will seem brand new and twice as exciting.
4) Winter Wonderland
Engage in winter-specific activities. Take your kids ice skating or sledding, build a snowman, and have snowball fights. Invite the neighborhood kids to join in the fun and finish with hot chocolate and cookies at your house.
5) Crafting
Exercise your kids' creativity. Turn them loose with empty toilet paper rolls, discarded boxes, buttons, cotton balls, and anything else you have on hand, along with glue and markers, and see what they come up with. Or take the easy route and buy a ready-to-assemble craft kit.
6) New Year, New Ideas
Introduce them to something new. Rent a movie that they've never seen before, possibly one of your old favorites. Then talk about it with them. Visit someone you know with an unusual hobby, maybe woodworking, glass blowing, stamp collecting or something similar. Adults are usually happy to share their favorite pastimes with the next generation. Stretch their horizons a little bit.
7) Party Time
Plan a New Year's Eve party for kids. Get them excited about picking out the decorations, buying the party favors and planning the menu. Take them shopping with you to get what's needed.
With a little bit of planning, you'll never again hear those dreaded words, "I'm bored" from your kids. They'll go back to school telling their friends about the great holiday break they enjoyed. You can make it happen with help from The Lakeside Collection.
