Friday, December 19, 2008

Fun Friday: Christmas

There are so many activities for Christmas that I am only going to be able to list a small percentage of them, some will be religious in nature and others are not. Either way, I encourage all of you to have your children experience some of both the religious and secular activities to truly experience the entire Christmas experience. I know many Christians who really do not celebrate Christmas becasuse they know it is not really Christ's birthday and that the date was chosen to compete with a pagan holiday and I respect that. For me, I feel that Christmas is a way of celebrating and remembering Christ's birth, even if it is not the actual day, and it is also a cultural tradition. There are many non-Christians, both in the US and abroad, who enjoy the "secular" side of Christmas as well. I think getting together with family and giving gifts from the heart is a wonderful thing, no matter what you believe.


Field Trips
-Visit Santa, whether it be at the mall, some other retail establishment, breakfast with Santa, or any where else you may find him, and at this time of year, you are likely to find him just about anywhere.
-Find a local neighborhood that has several houses decorated and drive (or walk, weather permitting) around to see them all.
-Attend a community tree lighting.
-Stop at a local soup kitchen and serve Christmas dinner.
-Attend a Christmas Eve church service and/or a church's Christmas Pageant.
-Throw or attend a Christmas party

Crafts
-String cranberries and popcorn on thread and hang on either your Christmas tree or an evergreen outside for the birds to enjoy.
-Make a star ornament by gluing 5 popsicle sticks in a star shape. Paint it yellow and sprinkle with glitter. Tie a string on it and hang from the tree. Alternatively, you could personalize it and use it as a gift tag.
-Use an old paperback book or Reader's Digest to make this cute Christmas tree.
-Thread pony beads onto pipe cleaner to make either a candy cane or a wreath.
-Make and decorate a gingerbread house. Alternatively, use icing to cover a (clean and empty) milk or juice carton with graham crackers and decorate that like a gingerbread house.
-Make a reindeer. Trace your child's socked foot on brownpaper to use for the face and trace their hands on lighter brown paper to use as antlers. Decorate as desired.


Activities
-DLTK has a bunch of coloring pages you can print off.
-Some other fun websites are Northpole.com and Santa.com.
-Track where Santa is and where he has already been on Christmas Eve with NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command)

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