Festive Season Family Fun

By Andreas Wilson-Späth

The long, sunny summer holidays are a favourite part of the year for many children, making the annual Festive Season the ideal time during which to create fabulous family traditions. Having special rituals that you enjoy together with your loved ones helps to build closeness and cohesion, provides comfort and security, reinforces your personal values and will create memories that all of you will treasure for the rest of your lives.

Here are some great ideas for starting new Festive Season family traditions:

1. In November, build an advent calendar together with your kids. Use toilet paper rolls, small boxes and crafting materials to construct a colourfully-decorated wall hanging or pyramid with sealed compartments numbered 1 to 25. Throughout December, the kids get to reveal one of the tiny treasures they contain (little toys, books, trinkets, sweets, vouchers for fun activities, etc.) every morning in the lead-up to Christmas Day.

2. Decorate your home for the season and make a special occasion of it by involving the entire family. Hang up strings of twinkly lights together and put a variety of hand-made and home-crafted ornaments on walls and windows. Why not choose a colourful African theme for this year?

3. Give back to those less fortunate than you this December and instil a sense of community and duty of care in your little ones. Cook a special meal for an elderly person in your neighbourhood or get the kids to choose some of their old toys and books, and donate them to a children’s home or hospital?

4. Enjoy a family game of learning to say ‘Happy Holidays’ in several of our national languages.

5. Make your new-born baby’s first Festive Season especially memorable by gently pressing their tiny feet or hands into salt dough disks and decorating them colourfully once dry, creating unique ornaments and gifts for relatives.

6. Don’t forget to take plenty of photos of baby in their first summer outfit – they’ll love looking at these as they grow older.

7. Start a New Year’s tradition of inviting granny and grandpa along with other close family members for a fun-filled end-of-year family dinner party.

8. Host an annual outdoor movie evening. Spread out blankets, make popcorn, invite the neighbours and use a projector to screen a classic family flick on a white sheet while you all relax under the summer night sky.

9. Start a fun summer holiday tradition by taking a classic holiday photo of the entire clan and then recreating it every subsequent year in the same place, the same poses and even the same outfits. You’ll end up with an amazing collection of pictures of your evolving family that will most definitely be worth framing!

 

 

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