The Everything Family Christmas Book (57 page)

Depending on the age of your children, you may want to involve them in holiday shopping, too. This is an opportunity to help them practice planning, budgeting, and decision-making skills. Or you could plan for them to enjoy an activity supervised by family or friends, while you head out with your shopping list unencumbered.

One of the best ways to both create a tradition and share your family’s goodwill is to help families who might be less fortunate. Involving the kids, in an age-appropriate way, and even having them help make the decision about how you help others, can truly reflect the Christmas spirit. Consider donating time to a toy drive, food bank, or homeless shelter near you. You could also raise funds for a cause that’s important to your family, or sponsor a child or family overseas.

Traditions Around the House

One favorite tradition that can take place well ahead of December 25 is writing a letter to Santa. Make it a festive occasion, to help little ones for whom tasks such as writing neatly and spelling correctly are a challenge: Special cookies may be a great incentive. After Christmas, make writing thank-you letters an equally enjoyable time for your children. Smaller children can draw pictures, while older children can print messages on cards or write proper letters. Let them know that the letters don’t have to be perfect, but they do need to be sent.

If you’re looking for a little quiet time around the house, especially on a busy day such as Christmas Eve, you could try instituting a tradition to match your mood. Try a Christmas-movie afternoon or time together reading Christmas books. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day also make great times to read the Christmas story aloud as a family.

Family traditions include parents! Consider creating a tradition of your own when the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. If you’re not off to midnight Mass, you might want to wrap presents together, or just enjoy a quiet moment in the midst of a sometimes hectic season.

Make your children feel special by including them in kitchen activities. Older children can help with baking and holiday food preparation; younger children will likely enjoy using colored icing to decorate cookies. At the dinner table, try including them in the festive atmosphere by serving them special juices or smoothies.

If you have family members who live too far away to visit at Christmas, make it a tradition to create a special family gift for them: Videotape the children playing, sending greetings, or singing carols, and then create a CD or DVD for them to play on their television set or computer. Software programs can also be used to design and print calendars with family photos for each month.

Welcoming Christmas Company

A full house at Christmas can be a very happy house, but it can also be more chaos than a barrel of monkeys—especially if some of those monkeys are children all keyed up at the prospect of a visit from Santa. A few preparations can make your guests feel welcome and help you cope with the extra people.

Setting the Stage

Whether your guest accommodation is a pull-out sofa bed or a separate bedroom, imagine that you’re a guest in your own home. What do you need most, and what will make you feel comfortable, rested, and welcome?

Fresh linens and fluffy towels (with a place to hang them up) are always appreciated, along with extra blankets or pillows, just in case they’re needed. A reading lamp beside the bed and a night light in the hall or bathroom can help light the way. Making space in bathrooms and closets also makes a big difference.

Really want to impress your guests? Consider adding bottled water, fresh flowers, a clock radio, books, magazines, or a little welcome basket of extra toiletries to their room. A coffee- or tea-making tray (think hotels and motels) can help guests whose sleep schedules might be different.

If children are among your prospective visitors, make sure you have toys, books, movies, or games on hand: You can buy them inexpensively at secondhand stores if you don’t already have a stock of your own. Check ahead of time, too, to see if the children have favorite snacks.

Stress-Reducing Strategies

Being clear and upfront about expectations and schedules is always a good idea. If, for example, you’re still heading to work every day, let your company know what your schedule is, so that you’ll have that precious bathroom time to yourself in the morning. And also let them know that you don’t expect them to be up with you and the larks!

Make sure that you introduce your guests to your home and any of its eccentricities, from keys to alarms to plumbing. To keep everyone safe, make sure that your guests know what your local emergency numbers are (or where they’re kept) and any fire escape routes.

Especially if your company is staying longer than just a few days, it’s a good idea to plan a few activities that you can enjoy together. Make sure it’s something that you want to do, too, so that you’re as enthusiastic about the activity as they are. You can also suggest activities or local attractions that they may wish to try on their own: Provide local tourist information and directions as needed.

Holiday Entertaining Made Easy

Whether it’s a family gathering or an opportunity to welcome friends or work colleagues into your home during the Christmas season, the holidays are a great excuse for a party. It can be a busy season, though, so consider your timing carefully to make it as easy as possible for people to attend. Send your invitations early, whether they’re going via e-mail or regular mail. Give your guests clear information, too, about what to expect, especially if you’re doing something unique this year.

Party Ideas for Adults

Gear your party to your audience; you know best whether they’ll appreciate Frank Sinatra or Frank Zappa, after all. That being said, the following ideas can be adapted to all ages and interests.

Decorating Party

If you have lots of house to decorate, or if you don’t mind exactly what your Christmas tree looks like, considering inviting friends and family for a decorating party. Theme it for the holidays, with carols on the stereo, movies on DVD in case the kids get bored or tired, and plenty of eggnog and hot chocolate.

All for One

Do you have a cause that’s near and dear to your heart? Consider hosting an event that raises awareness or funds (or both) for the cause. Let your guests know ahead of time what’s happening, and whether they can bring along charitable donations such as food, toys, books, or even money to help out.

Songs for your Christmas party playlist might include: “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bill Haley and the Comets; “2000 Miles” by the Pretenders; “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band; and “Wonderful Christmastime,” by Paul McCartney. Look for compilations of carols and classics in the stores, too.

Consider giving small gifts away, or holding a draw for a larger, donated door prize as a thank you to those who’ve attended. And be sure to offer receipts for tax purposes if your cause is a recognized charity.

Baking Away

Since holiday baking can often be a solitary endeavor, why not welcome company in the kitchen by inviting a few friends over to help? This works especially well if you have a double oven, but even if you don’t, you might be able to juggle the cookie baking so that cookies that are quick to prepare get made and into the oven first. Or, stick to cookie recipes that can accommodate fridge or freezer time for the dough: You can all exchange dough and baking instructions and then bake a variety of cookies at home.

If your kitchen is too small to make this practical, consider making your party into a cookie exchange. The guidelines can vary, but one way to handle it is for everyone to bring a dozen cookies for each person—if you have six people, everyone goes home with six-dozen cookies!

Christmas Masquerade

Suggest that guests dress up as characters from famous holiday films and videos. Examples might include George Bailey from
It’s a Wonderful Life,
Rudolph, or Frosty the Snowman. Have one person become Santa Claus for the evening and surprise your guests with inexpensive gifts, such as homemade bread or fudge. This could also be a good way to distribute Christmas favors to everybody in attendance.

Game On!

Charades might be an old chestnut, but it’s great fun when you use elements that fit the season. Try Christmas movies; traditional Christmas figures such as Santa Claus, the Little Drummer Boy, or the reindeer; and the names of Christmas songs.

Another classic Christmas-party idea involves a memory game based on the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Gather the players into a circle; let each person review the lyrics for a few moments, and appoint one person as judge. The judge takes the lyrics and selects a person to start the song, beginning with the first day. From memory, each player must sing a single day—and all the days that preceded it! If you miss a day (or, depending on the harshness of the judge, if you hesitate unduly), you must leave the circle. The judge then reads the correct lyric for the remaining players. When the circle has been reduced to two players, the judge gives each the twelfth day. If both can recite it, the game ends in a tie. Otherwise, the person who gets furthest through the longest and most difficult day wins the game.