Traveling during the holidays can be brutal. If you have children, you already know how difficult it is to keep track of the kids, not to mention, yourself and your husband. There’s a bag or four to pack, maybe more. You have to make sure the oven is turned off, the coffee maker is unplugged, and verify that all the windows are locked. Question: Do you bring your hairdryer? Last-minute question: Did you pack all the phone chargers? Awkward question: Did your husband pack enough underwear? And what about entertainment? How do you entertain yourself and your family when you’ve got hours of travel time to endure? How on earth will you keep the kids occupied? How on earth will you keep your husband busy? Yourself? How do you entertain yourself and your family when you’re stuck for a week at the in-laws? Do you just rely on everyone wanting to bury their faces in their smartphones, their tablets for days on end? Or do you bring a bunch of magazines, a good book or two? Exactly what do you do when you’re worried about making sure that everyone is entertained when you’ve got, potentially a long car trip to suffer, or a couple of hours of standing around in the security lines at the airport during the holiday season, before you then have to sit for even longer in an uncomfortable chair at the terminal when you can’t find a plug-in to charge your phone? How can you entertain everyone during the holiday season when it’s important to keep the family interacting? Here are a few ideas:
Break The Addiction, Slowly
Given how your kids, husband, yourself, and even your entire family are already glued to their smartphones, why not use everyone’s bad habits to bring the family closer together? The way you do it, to have everyone catch up on your favorite Netflix shows together. Does your husband have one particular show that he likes to watch with you? Do the kids like a certain show that, even though you can’t stand it, you’ll watch it just to be interacting with them? Why not go through the vast Netflix catalog and pick out a few new shows that no one in the family has seen, a classic TV series, and then hold a vote to see what everyone will watch together. By holding a vote, you’ll get an immediate sense of togetherness within your family, and then by watching the show together, you can engage each other afterward. Go around the room and ask everyone what their favorite part of any particular episode was? Did they expect a particular aspect of the story line to come to fruition, or was it a total curve ball? It can be a nightmare to try and break everyone’s addiction to screen time, so if you’ve been looking for a way to bring the family closer together, the easiest way to do it is by diving in deep and embracing the tech that they love.
A New Recipe Will Always Excite
If there’s something associated with the holidays that can create a sense of dread, it’s the knowledge that comes with the repetition of year-after-year tradition. As much as I know, certain people who love Thanksgiving, there are a few that simply dread the holiday because they know that they’re going to have to endure the gross, out-of-a-can cranberry sauce, the mushy stuffing, etc. Christmas is no different. Anyone who’s anyone that’s been “at it” for a few years generally will make “everyone’s favorite” holiday cookies, pies, appetizers, etc. So, why not shake it up?!?! Make the usual, but also make something totally insane that your family would never see coming. It doesn’t have to be something gross, but it should be fun. Make a dish, that features a flavor combination that no one would have ever thought would be good together. Years ago, at one of my own Thanksgiving, my wife and I brought two cases of the Thanksgiving flavors of the popular Jones Soda brand. After dinner, we sat around the dining room table and poured out samples in shot glasses of a “Creamed Corn Soda,” a “Thanksgiving Turkey Soda,” a “Pumpkin Pie soda,” etc. for our 8-year-old nephews. They went crazy, they were screaming, laughing. Not only was it interesting to watch their gag-like reactions, but it was also super fun to spend that time together with them.
Finish A Project
Are you into scrapbooking? Get the whole family involved. If you’ve got dozens of photos that are in desperate need of organization and assembly, why not get the entire family involved in arranging and creating a very special holiday book for this year? Pick a theme. Organize old family reunion photos! Getting the family all together, sitting around the table, to go through old photos is a fun way to bring everyone closer through memories, but is also great because it means that you can cross something off your “to-do” list. Looking at old photos brings back memories, recalls the good old days, and will find members of your family laughing, smiling, and remembering exactly what you’re all there sitting around the table in the first place together.
Escape Room / Virtual Reality Experience
Last year, my family and I on Christmas Eve, went to an Escape Room. It was insanely fun. But, it was also incredibly productive, as it brought all of us must closer, literally and figuratively. We were placed in a log cabin and had to escape in 60 minutes. Myself, my wife, my mother, my niece, my sister, and my aunt. We put our heads together, brainstormed the clues, and managed to escape by throwing ourselves down a slide with just twenty-three seconds left on the clock. It brought us together, in the sense that we were all crammed into a little room, but also because we had to combine our talents to get out of the room. What could be more wonderful during the holiday season than to feel super close to your family?
Have A Spa Day
If you’ve been unsuccessful in the past when it comes to getting your kids to give up their smartphones, tablets, or get them away from the sofa and the television, then why not reset yourself so that you can try again? Whenever you need a reset or break, whether it’s from the stress caused by a meddling and annoying mother-in-law, your crazy kids, or your husband, why not treat yourself during the holiday season to a spa day. Get your nails done, your feet, get a facial, get a back massage. It’s fun, but it’s also relaxing. And if you’re not in need of a reset and are just looking for something to do with the family, why not take your husband, parents, kids, aunts, uncles, etc. While initially, the idea of having the men in your family to get their toes done, might be something that seems like an impossible notion, if you can get just one man in your family to participate, the others always fall in line. It only takes one time. Once your husband has a pedicure, goes home, and rubs his feet together when he’s lying in bed at night, he’s guaranteed to return.
Guest post written by Justin Michaels from UglyChristmasSweater.com. He enjoys riding his mountain bike, listening to music, and reading, when he’s not busy peddling ugly Christmas sweater pajamas on the website.
