Itโs almost Christmas and itโs time for a cozy weekend at home. My kids are out of school and the whole family needs a slower pace and some rest before the big day next week. Our weekend cozy Christmas weekend plans include:
Watching holiday movies
We have a weekly movie night every Friday but might need to plug in a couple more evenings to watch all of the favorites before the holiday. If Iโm choosing, itโs definitely โWhite Christmasโ or โThe Muppets Christmas Carol.โ But if my kids are choosing, it might be โHome Aloneโ or โThe Santa Clause.โ When they were toddlers, we watched the original Grinch (itโs short, which is perfect!) or โThe Starโ on repeat. Here’s our guide to holiday movies with recommendations based on age.
Baking cookies
My 13-year-old loves to bake and has discovered that peanut butter oatmeal cookies are her new favorite. I personally love a classic batch of gingerbread cookies with red hots as decoration. If youโre looking for some inspiration, try chocolate, peanut butter cookies or s’mores cookies (both of these are crowd favorites).
Reading holiday books
Is there anything better than reading a Christmas book to littles!?! Mine have mostly outgrown picture books, but they will still tolerate my reading requests at Christmastime. Here are a few of my favorites:
- “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore – I love this classic. There are a ton of different versions with differnt types of illustrations but my favorite is a shadow book that you use a flashlight to make the pictures on your wall.
- “Who is Coming to Our House” by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff – This one tells the nativity story from the barn animals perspective; it’s full of delightful excitement and wonder.
- “Llama Llama Holiday Drama” by Anna Dewdney – This story is so much fun! Every family has probably experienced similar drama around the holidays and seeing little Llama and his mama work together to resolve it is a heart-warming experience.
Christmas scavenger hunt
If you need to burn some energy and have some Christmas fun, a scavenger hunt is always a winner! This one has free printables and includes some blank cards to customize it for your home and family. This one is also fun if you have a gaggle of family members around for the holiday!
The longer I’m a parent the more I understand that a few small but intentional things can have just as big (if not a bigger) impact on my kids’ holiday experience. And I know that for my family a chill weekend with intentional Christmas activities will set them up to be well rested and in the right frame of mind before the hub bub of extended family activities begin next week. My hope is that your family can also enjoy a cozy Christmas weekend with a few simple activities that create fun and togetherness.
Emiley Bainbridge isย MetroFamilyโsย assistant editor. Sheโs married to Russ and the mom of Olivia and Nicholas. An OKC native, she enjoys reading, musical theater and dance parties.
