Help me with Intentional Christmas vacation activities

[Melaine]

We will be spending about 5 days at the beach with my extended family this Christmas. Time together like this is extremely rare and I'm trying to plan simple things we can do together for the kids to really be intentional at creating memories. Ages of children are: 9 months, 12 months, 12 months, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 12. The 12 year olds are my twin girls and they are all about playing with the little ones so it's ok that stuff will be geared young. Here are some ideas I have so far. We can't do them all, but I'm just brainstorming at this point.




*Matching pjs for photos

*Story time where the big girls read to the little ones (bringing holiday books from home especially books we saved from when me and my siblings were little).

*Hot chocolate in monogrammed stainless steel cups (PJs and cups are the only gifts I plan for the children. Obviously the babies are too little but I still got them!).

*Painting ornaments or making them somehow? Anyone have a great simple idea?

*Fingerprint Christmas frames: These are so easy with the $1 frames from Michaels and they turn out really cute!

*Decorating cookies?

*Handprints: I would love to do some kind of hand print tablecloth for my mom and my aunt but not sure if that is WAY over ambitious. Need to google this.

*Rock painting: Throwing this out there because my kids do this all the time and we have all the supplies. Might be fun to leave a few rocks on the beach

*Nativity devotion or just reading the Christmas story. Maybe from the Jesus storybook Bible.




I would love to hear your ideas!:D

[jgenie]

I think I remember that you or your parents have a Costco membership. If so, pick up some of their gingerbread house kits. The babies won’t be able to help but your girls would have fun helping the younger kids decorate.

Buy blank canvases and have everyone make a handprint / footprint art piece. Everyone can add to their collections in years to come and the first one would have been made together. Do one piece for your parents that incorporates all the grandkids. You can assign each kid a color or initial which belong to which child.

[WitMom]

We made these ornaments one year. Instead of putting the glitter in a cake pan like the blogger did, we just put it in a ziplock bag, dropped the whole cookie cutter in, and shook. Not *too* messy. Some of our ornaments have lasted for years, some others have rusted. I'm not sure why the difference. Maybe if you used plastic cookie cutters instead?

https://happilyeverafteretc.com/christmas-cookie-cutter-ornaments/