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This Christmas will be a different to previous years, so we've put together some ideas to make sure the festive season remains 'the most wonderful time of the year'! With a little planning, there are still ways to make this month extra special and involve your loved ones who may not be able to join you! Read below for virtual Christmas activities, old and new traditions, plus a little advice from Denmark!
Zoom festive fun and games
Before Christmas, check on any relatives particularly the elderly or vulnerable who can’t make it. Have their food shop organised, technology set up so they can stay in touch with you all, plus anything such as prescriptions sorted. While you’re at it, check in on any neighbours you know are on their own and not able to see their family this year. They may have it all under control, but they may also be so happy to have the odd zoom quiz to look forward to and peace of mind that a plated Christmas dinner will be popped around – lets be fair most of us cook for double the size of our family at Christmas.
With Facetime, Microsoft teams, Zoom to mention a few - there’s no need for Grandparents to miss out on seeing joy of the grandchildren opening their gifts. It also means they can join in with the after dinner festivities, and we don’t mean trying to put together a Barbie Dreamhouse or Millennium Falcon without instruction because they got thrown out with the wrapping paper!
Zoom Quiz (you.co.uk)
- Name Santa’s reindeer - we all know Rudolph but can you remember the other 12?
- Name the 12 gifts given in “The 12 Days of Christmas”
- Nativity Trivia – test how closely they’ve been watching those school plays over the years
- Christmas traditions around the world - why do we have Christmas stockings or which country is it popular to eat fried chicken on Christmas Day instead of turkey?
- White Christmas - How many times have we actually had one?
- Christmas Movies - from “Elf” to “Miracle on 34th Street” pick the family’s favourite and find the most obscure facts you can
- Christmas movie poster or stills - turn it into a picture round by adding visuals of all the best scenes
- Christmas Number 1s. Music round – can they remember which year or the name of the song that topped the charts?
- Finish the Christmas lyric - "Well I wish it could be Christmas Everyday, when the kids start singing and...?”
- Christmas Carols - a more traditional take on a Christmas music theme
- Christmas movie soundtracks - “Love Actually” alone can provide you with plenty of material for this
- Christmas movie characters - you’ve seen it hundreds of times, so why can’t you remember the name of the dad in “Home Alone”
- Christmas dinner foods - go with trivia or images for this one. Not so tricky you might think- but when you zoom in on them super close can you really tell the difference between roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese?
- Christmas chocolates – do you know your Quality Street from your Roses, how about when the wrappers are gone?
- Christmas adverts - Not just Coca Cola and John Lewis, get some more obscure ads in there to make things trickier
- Bestselling Christmas toys - ask them the name of the toy or the year. This is another one that works well with pictures
- Celebrities born on Christmas Day - Annie Lennox and Ricky Martin to name but a few
- Actors who’ve played Santa - there are so many, can the teams work out their name from a picture, or remember which film they starred in?
- Christmas emoji’s - one of our more unique Christmas quiz round ideas. Use faces and icons to represent the names of classic Christmas phrases, films or songs and watch them scratch their heads trying to figure them out
- Christmas anagrams - this is a super easy Christmas quiz round to put together, simply scramble up festive words or sayings and see how fast they can solve them
- Christmas quotes - who said "God bless us. Everyone?” or “Merry Christmas, you filthy animal”?
- Grab the Christmas item - stockings, tinsel, candy canes, a clementine, see which team one can find these items in their house and show them to you the quickest
- Christmas memory test - talk them through a series of Christmassy goods and see if they can recall them all back to you. Get them to hold up their hands so they can’t write it down off camera
- Christmas spot the difference - a fun option if your photo shopping skills are half decent, subtly alter some festive pics and see who can tell what’s new
- Elf on the shelf - get yourself an elf and take pictures of them in as many random locations as you can. The teams have to tell you where it is and what it’s doing, the most creative answer get the most points!
Charades
A Christmas classic and definitely do-able via zoom!
Christmas movie forfeit game
This can be an adult drinking game! All households can pop on the same Christmas movie at the same time and take a sip of your drink each time it snows, see a Christmas tree, or Santa etc. For a more family friendly version - other 'fun forfeits' can be used instead, such as sing the first verse of 'jingle bells' or every time you see a sleigh, eat a sprout, when you hear church bells, do 5 jumping jacks!
Speed wrapping
Here’s a fun way to make quick work of wrapping all those presents under the tree! Grab a timer and see which family member can wrap the most gifts in the shortest time. Up the stakes by imposing a “one hand only” rule!
Christmas “Never Have I Ever”
Here is a simple game that works well on zoom and helps you get to know your friends and family members on a deeper level. You might just find out for example whose re-gifted something? To play; each person takes turns coming up with something they’ve never done for example “never have I ever… spent the bulk of my Christmas budget on myself.” Any player who has done so must take a sip of their drink, of course you can make it family friendly by changing it to fun forfeits as suggested in “Christmas Movie forfeit game!”
Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Keep the kids occupied by challenging them to hunt for each and every item on your list. For younger children to be involved you can use pictures of items instead of words, this is also great fun for zoom and a great way for children to let off steam!
The best thing about technology is it gives friends, families, and loved ones a chance to see each other, reminisce and share this most special time of the year together!
Christmas traditions: Tried and tested
Christmas is a time when families get together! You may not have seen many relatives this year, but you can all slip into that comfortable Christmas routine you’re all so familiar with, with those traditions that bring back so many happy memories.
If your usual Christmas plans have changed this year and you are feeling a little at a loss how to get in the festive spirit, why not think about starting some new traditions to give you that festive spark? Lots of traditions start with the basics that need to be done in the run up to Christmas: the day you put your decorations up, a Christmas shopping day, a gift wrapping afternoon, the making of the Christmas cake and pudding to mention a few!
Tis' the season of goodwill
Why not start a tradition that benefits others? Sign up for a Santa Charity run, donate toys to your local hospital or children’s charity, make a delivery to the nearest food bank or check with local organisations what they need! It might just be an hour of your time volunteering, but would be greatly appreciated by these charities. If you are sending Christmas cards this year - why not include an extra handwritten note or a photo? The recipient will be delighted to receive what might be their only happy piece of post amongst all the bills and junk mail. Nothing beats the personal touch to remind someone they are thought of and loved particularly at this special time of year!
T’was the night before Christmas
For many families Christmas Eve is as big, if not bigger than Christmas day. Many following the tradition of giving gifts on Christmas Eve rather than the following morning. If Christmas Eve is usually a big social affair for you and your family, why not try a few of these this year instead? A Christmas Eve box for each child, with new nightwear and Christmas themed bedtime story book. You can also track Santa’s journey across the world - it certainly gets children scuttling quickly to bed when they realise they have to be asleep before Santa arrives! Watch out for Santa and his sleigh on one of his practice runs in December or if you’re lucky on Christmas Eve, his sleigh will be disguised as the international space station and is visible to the naked eye - you might think it’s a fast moving plane only much higher and faster, but of course we all know it’s Santa. Also, don’t forget to look out for the Christmas Star, the brightest star in the night sky!
Deck the halls
In 'It’s a wonderful life' the famous quote is “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings”, why not always add a small bell ornament to your tree to symbolise this or 'The Polar Express' where the bell still rings for all who truly believe. You could create a tradition of who adds the angel or Star to the top of your tree each year - children quite often make festive ornaments at school or at clubs keeping these and adding them each year is a lovely way to reminisce of Christmas days in the past. Another idea is to take a photo of the family or just the children each Christmas and make a photo bauble so each year you add another to the collection! Children love to see old photos of themselves and parents marvel at how their children have grown, it’s a wonderful family activity whilst decorating the tree.
Bring us some figgy pudding
Well not necessarily pudding, but Christmas morning breakfast is a source for debate. After being woken at the crack of dawn, some may be happy that the chocolate coins Santa left in the stockings will tide them over until Christmas dinner. Others enjoy a glass of bubbly and something special such as french toast with fresh berries, eggs benedict, Danish pastries or a nice cup of tea (Christmas mug of course) or bacon or sausage sarnies! Many families have an unbreakable tradition of breakfast before gifts which makes sense if you know once the toys are open, you won’t sit still until well after the Queens Speech. A breakfast idea: Make egg and soldiers but use your Christmas cookie cutters for the soldiers and draw a Santa face on the egg shell - it’s a quick way to add the festivities to breakfast and something children can look forward to!
In the bleak mid-winter
Well we all hope for a white Christmas - just enough to look pretty, not enough that everything grinds to a halt! But even without snow, getting out for some fresh air either after Christmas dinner or on Boxing Day is a really great idea for a new tradition. For those who were lucky enough to receive new bikes for Christmas, Exeter and the surrounding area has some fantastic cycle routes to try and scenic walks if you wanted a stroll! If you are planning a walk along the coastline or on the moors, please check the weather conditions!
Last Christmas
The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor Councillor Peter Holland kindly reminisced of Christmas bygone and in particular a favourite tradition of his during his extensive teaching career:
"As a primary school teacher, I ring fenced all of my numeracy lessons during December for 'Chrismaths'. Even after I had left teaching, I still volunteered in schools where I was either a Governor or a 'volunteer' on behalf of The Royal Mail (Corporate Social Responsibility) when I was the Community Development Manager in the South West. 2020 will be the first Christmas that I will not have been in front of a class of Year 5/Year 6 children for many years! I occasionally bump into families that I have taught in the past who tell me that things that I made with their children years ago are carefully brought out year on year at this festive time!"
Here are just two of the many exercises taught by the Lord Mayor of Exeter that produced some exceptional decorations for the children, for you and your children to try too:
A Dodecahedron (Greek δωδεκάεδρον, from δώδεκα, dōdeka "twelve") - A dodecahedron is a regular geometric solid (called a Platonic solid) that has 12 pentagons as faces. It has 20 vertices (points) and 30 edges (lines between the pentagonal faces) Here's a construction of dodecahedrons made from ‘recycled’ Christmas Cards:
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A Kite is a 4-sided flat shape with straight sides that has two pairs of sides, each pair is made of two adjacent sides (they meet) that are equal in length.Also, the angles are equal where the pairs meet. The diagonals meet at a right angle 90°. One of the diagonals bisects (cuts equally in half) the other. 8 Kites tessellated to make stars:
Hygge - Who knew!
Clement Clarke Moore captured the magic of Christmas way back in 1822 with the poem “Twas the night before Christmas”, if you are struggling to get into the festive spirit this year, why not start by taking a leaf out of the Danes book?
“Hygge” pronounced “hoo-ga” is a word the Danish use to describe a feeling of cozy contentment and wellbeing whilst enjoying the simple things in life. It’s so much more than that - Meik Wiking says in The little book of Hygge “Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things. It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe, that we are shielded from the world and allow ourselves to let our guard down.”
There are a few simple tips to help get Hygge at home:
Light – Getting the lighting right makes all the difference! The Danish are obsessed by candles, they don’t have to be expensive or scented as it’s all about the warm glow of light. Please be careful and remember to extinguish them afterwards! If you are nervous about candles, there are many battery candles and tea lights which give the same gentle glow, you can also use lamps and dimmer lights rather than ceiling lights to create that cosy warm atmosphere.
Comfort - We all love a duvet day! Hygge takes this to a whole new level - cushions, throws and blankets the more tactile the better. Don't forget the fluffy socks, pjs or cosy jumpers and cardigans!
Presence - So your home looks cosy and inviting and your close family and friends are all snug as bugs, but are you fully appreciating it? Turn off your phones and other screens. Enjoy the conversations, get the board games out, settle down with your favourite book.
Food & drink - One of the loveliest things about this time of year and perfectly Hygge is the food and hot drinks; these are often home baked, cakes and bakes are wholesome, rich and often spiced. Teamed with dreamy hot chocolate, freshly brewed coffee or aromatic mulled wine - savour the moment and enjoy these simply pleasures.
Once you have these simple steps in place, as the conversation flows, you will naturally become more Hygge and feeling the benefits of looking after your wellbeing this winter! Not to mention it will also get you thinking of more ways to enjoy the simple things in life - you’ll realise it’s no surprise that Denmark is considered one of the happiest countries!
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