Making Christmas Memories Without Leaving Home

It is that time of year again, Christmas trees are being set up in homes and the twinkling lights are being hung once more. If you turn on the radio the stations are playing Christmas music to brighten your day and bring holiday cheer. Holiday movies are being streamed and everyone is planning what to give their loved ones. Although this year has been tough and we have all faced many hardships, this time of year can still be as jolly as the past. We must keep the Christmas spirit alive in our hearts and our homes. If you are looking for activities to do this holiday with your family, here are some ideas that can bring you holiday cheer: 

• Cook a Big Christmas Breakfast: What is the first thing you think about when you wake up? ‘What’s for breakfast?’ This Christmas plan ahead about a couple of days before and buy all the ingredients necessary to make a delicious breakfast with your family. You can either go with the basic pancakes, eggs, bacon, and orange juice meal. Or you can try spicing things up and making it Christmas themed. Make reindeer shaped pancakes, use the bacon as antlers, blueberries as the eyes, and chocolate chips for the smile. You can also use the Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Dough and shape it into Christmas trees, Santa hats, or snowmen. Then you can decorate them with icing or whipped cream. But most importantly, don’t forget the hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows. You can add green and red sprinkles, and stick a candy cane in the drink. 
• Exchange Gifts On Christmas Morning: After your big breakfast, take the time to sit around your Christmas tree, in your living room, or near your fireplace. Put on some Christmas music to set the mood and exchange gifts with your family and friends. You can make things interesting by playing White Elephant or a game of Secret Santa. To play White Elephant, you must pick a price limit for the gifts, each player must have a wrapped gift and they must pick a number from a hat, then you place the gifts in the center of the room. To start the game the first player chooses a gift and opens it for everyone to see. Each subsequent number can either choose an unopened gift or steal one, but gifts can only be stolen up to three times, once the fourth person gets it the gift can no longer be stolen. These are some games you can play to make your gift exchange more fun. 
• Christmas Movie Marathon: It wouldn’t be Christmas without all the classic movies that our families grew up watching. This holiday you can plan to spend the whole day watching Christmas movies or you can make a movie calendar, every night pick a Christmas movie to watch up until Christmas Day. You will need blankets, pillows, a streaming device, and lots of snacks. You can plan and buy snacks such as popcorn, chocolate, candy canes, chips, sodas, ice cream, cookies, and any candy of your choice. You can even make the snacks more holiday-themed, such as a cheese and fruit platter in the shape of a Christmas tree, reindeer brownies decorated with pretzels as the antlers, white Hershey kisses for the eyes, and a red chocolate m&m for the nose. You can also make s’mores and a classic hot chocolate never fails. You can watch Christmas movies on Netflix such as The Christmas Chronicles, Klaus, The Grinch, The Holiday Calendar, The Princess Switch, and The Knight Before Christmas. There is also a new series on Netflix, Dash and Lily, which is set in New York City during the week of Christmas. Get in your favorite pajamas, grab your blankets and snacks, and let the fun begin. 
• A Christmas-Themed Game Night: Make your Christmas Eve party and Christmas Day exciting, by having a holiday game night. You can play many board games such as Monopoly, Clue, Catan, Candy Land, and Battleship. You can also have card games which include UNO, Cards Against Humanity, Black Jack, and Crazy Eights. Along with board games, you can play Christmas Trivia, Christmas Jeopardy, and Pictionary. You can come up with your questions about classic Christmas movies and traditions, you can play finish the Christmas lyrics, and you can play charades. You can find karaoke versions of all the Christmas songs on YouTube and have a karaoke competition. If you are seeing some of your family this holiday, you can also have an Among Us tournament and teach everyone how to play, or play virtually with the family you can’t see in person. Along with this, you can always stick to the most popular Christmas game, which is a gingerbread house making competition. Have several small prizes ready, make teams, keep score, and enjoy the games.