Christmas Tree Activities
Decorating the Christmas tree is an event that most members of any family look forward to.
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Christmas Tree brings exciting times into the home. |
It is not only a time to reflect and remember where the various ornaments came from or who made them, but it is also an exciting time that brings Christmas into the home.
There are a variety of activities you can incorporate into bringing the Christmas tree into your home. Some families enjoy singing "Oh Christmas Tree" as the tree enters the house. Make a fun activity of this whereby everyone has to come up with an original verse to the song (since few know the actual words). It can keep everyone entertained while someone else works to get the tree standing up straight.
Make a game from the ornaments once the tree is in a stand and ready to be decorated. Put all the homemade ornaments aside and work with those first. Start with the first family member and ask who made the ornament and where it came from. Once the details are out, ask the crafter (likely a child) if they remember making the ornament. If you're the parent, tell the child what you thought when you first saw the ornament. Decoration is fun since it reminds children that the things they make and bring home are meaningful to their parents.
There is always one ornament that is just ugly or plain silly. Play "hot potato" with that ornament. Whoever gets stuck with the nasty ornament has to say one nice thing: "Well, there's a lot of glitter on it, and that's pretty," or "Dougie made it, so I like it." It's a silly way to remind children to find good in everything. It might remind them this is a good lesson for this time of year.
Some people use an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas, but one fun activity will surely be a hit with children. Similar to the concept in Germany (where the advent calendar originated), this involves providing one small gift for children every day until Christmas. In Germany, for several days before Christmas, you can do it for the 24 days of the month until Christmas arrives.
Easy Christmas tree craft: buy tiny handled gift bags at the craft store. Buy 1 for each of your children. Have the children decorate the bags, and on each of the 24 bags, have them place a number as well, 1 through 24. As you decorate the tree, find space for each little bag. Because they have handles, they can hang right on the tree like an ornament, or you can tie the ribbon. They have a more graceful swing. Each night, fill the right bag with a tiny prize or gift. So, if it's the night of December 14, you'll take bag #15 (all the bags with earlier numbers will be gone) and put some little trinkets in it. It might be a piece of candy, a tiny ornament for your child's tree, a car, or a small eraser. The idea here is that it's a small gift, but come morning, that's the first activity your children will engage in - discovering what little treat you left for them the night before.