Making Memories for Your Family This Christmas

Posted on November 22, 2009 at 5:13 pm

One of my favourite Christmas songs is the one with the line that describes Christmas as being ‘the most wonderful time of the year’. While everyone looks forward to the giving and receiving of Christmas gifts there are many more activities that make Christmas wonderful and memorable. In this article I’ll share some of my favourite Christmas activities; maybe you can adopt some of them for your own family. Choosing a Christmas TreeThe Christmas Tree is a focal point in our home at Christmas and is the most visible display during the festive season. For many families the search for a Christmas Tree begins with a family trip to a tree farm on the day after Thanksgiving. In our house the memories start with us hauling the huge box containing our artificial tree out of the attic and trying to remember how it all fits together!Once the tree is assembled the real fun starts; decorating it with gorgeous Christmas ornaments. Our entire family takes part in decorating the tree; put some Christmas tunes on the stereo and have a sing-a-long while you decorate. Of course many of our ornaments are bought from the store but we also love to make our own homemade Christmas decorations. A lot of love goes into each ornament and as we unpack them each year they bring back a lot of happy memories about Christmases past. While decorations may change from year to year the homemade ones always have a special place on our tree. Baking cookies and other goodiesAnother one of our memorable activities is cookie baking. We make gingerbread cookies and use Christmas-shaped cookie cutters to give them a festive feel. Baking cookies is an activity the whole family can enjoy. Older children can help with the baking while the younger ones can have fun sprinkling sugar on the finished cookies, or decorating them with icing. Just be sure to have the camera ready for some great fun-filled Christmas shots. Making goodie basketsIf you set aside a whole day for baking you’ll be surprised at the amount of Christmas cookies and other baked goods you can turn out. These make great gifts for friends and family; even the kid’s teachers. Simply add the cookies and some fruit and other treat to a small basket and finish it off with a bow. Goodie baskets make wonderful gifts as they are home-made and this makes them more treasured than a Christmas gift bought at the store. Send a Christmas card or letter to loved onesWe must not forget that Christmas is the season of goodwill and good cheer and it is very important to reach out to friends and family during the holiday season. While you may be too busy to stay in touch during the year Christmas is a great time to catch up and share your family news. We spend time making our own greetings cards for close friends and family. For out-of-town relatives we write up a Christmas letter, packed full of news from the year gone by. The little ones can help by decorating the letters, perhaps including drawings and photos. These letters are a great way to share the important things that have happened in your life. Finding our what Santa broughtOf course the activity that everyone looks forward to most is the presents on Christmas morning. The little ones sneak down on Christmas morning to see what Santa left for them during the night. Magically hiding the gifts the night before is as much a memorable activities for the adults as seeing their little one’s faces light up as they tear open the gifts on Christmas morning.