Only x number of days to go.’ These words can fill you with either excitement and childish glee or dread and ‘bah humbug’! I personally love this time of year and it takes all my self control to wait till 1st of Dec to dust the cobwebs off the tree from the loft and begin merrily hanging the glitz and tinsel around the lounge. It took my daughter and I a day to put it up and unfortunately three days for our 6mth old kitten to dismember and artistically rearrange! How kind of me, when the nights are drawing in and the weather chilling rapidly to bring in a climbing frame with sparkly dangly bits to play with!new-pics-129.jpg
Children can also find this time challenging, with so much build up, advertising everywhere, multitudes of Santas, compounded with massive shopping exbititions to get Aunty Sue’s red mist remover spray and the pressure to behave, it can be a bit stressful all round. Here are some of my top tips for you and your family not only survive but really enjoy Christmas.
TOP TIPS
1. Take time before hitting the shops to really think about your buying. Sometimes we just dive into the shops and hope to find something, however a little careful thought can prevent sweat and tears and making rushed decisions under pressure. If possible go while children are at school to take pressure off you and them to be at their best when there is so much going on around them. Late night shopping can be great. If you are taking your children with you plan your route in advance and don’t try and do all twenty shops in twenty minutes. Trust me it is not worth it!!!!
2. Make your own labels. Its cheap, individual and brilliant fun. Kids love to get creative and messy and best of all your presents will mean that much more because your children have put their mark on them. This is also a great way of using up old Christmas cards. You can buy cheap card from pound shops or specialist craft shops. Then cut up old cards and stick them on the new card, add a little glitter and a silver or gold gel pen to write inside and there you have it!
3. This next tip I would like to thank Sharon for! Why not make advent special and more of a family affair. Have you noticed how advent calanders now have chocolates in, when I was growing up I was thrilled with the picture version. I used to sneek a look the night before and then we would use then same ones for the next four or five years!! So keep the chocolates if you really must and then add a twist. Sit down as a family and write down on 25 small pieces of paper 25 different activities. It may be things like do a crazy dance after dinner, have a mad hair day or half day, watch a christmas film together, make a decoration for the tree. They can be as big or as small as you like, kids will love them and get you into the spirit too bringing you closer together at this amazing time.
4. Make a date and go for a walk or a drive as the day draws in. The Christmas lights are just beautiful. Coming from Oz they have only recently begun lighting their homes. People here in UK are pros! So make the most of them and they are free. Nothing like a twinkle and sparkle to bring home the magic. I remember sitting underneath our tree when I was little captivated by the lights!
5. Keep your sense of humour. When you see you cat climbing the Christmas tree for the hundredth time ask yourself ‘is this a crisis or an inconvienience’. This helps with a lot of things, just get it into perspective. Actually the sooner we can laugh at ourselves and life the sooner we can really start living it. Kids are the perfect opportunity to practise this one. When you are having difficulty seeing the funny side, fast forward the event to the end and imagine telling your mates what happened, what ever it is it will make a brilliant story in about half an hour!
Ok, that’s it for now, watch this space over the next few days for more tips and treasure every moment. When the family grow up and move out who is going to remember what you bought them or if the star on the tree was at exactly the right angle or whether the washing up was always done. They will remember you tearing your hair out, laughing at the Christmas films, the family together squeezed around the dinner table and waiting for Santa with heavy eye lids. Which memory do you want them to keep?
Till next time have a brilliant week and keep smiling
Best wishes
Tanya
Here are a few sites which looked interesting
http://kidscraftweekly.com/
www.activityvillage.co.uk/advent_paper_chain.htm
