Happy December! I hope your holiday season is going well. I can honestly say that mine is having a different feel than previous years. Between the economy and the Christmas perfection stress that we put on ourselves every year, it’s very easy to feel that this holiday season may be very different. As for me and my home, I can honestly say that this season of motherhood for me -teenage and college years- definitely has me in a bit of a fog on how to handle the holidays this year. Being the parent of older children makes you long for the simpler years when it was easy to create a magical atmosphere for the little ones. The transformation of the home, the arts and crafts time around the table, the joy of seeing Santa, the funny elf on a shelf scenes, seeing their faces when they open their cute gifts, and so on and so on.
Having older children can sometimes make it difficult to have that same vibe. Don’t get me wrong, they like the holiday season— they just don’t necessarily want to participate in the same childish things that they participated in when they were younger. And the past few years have proven to be kinda difficult for me to navigate. As their mom, of course I want to continue to make lots of memories every year with them. THEY. ARE. MY. BABIES! And I want all the magic back! So what’s a mom to do? Embrace it. Embrace it and line up your traditions with a more adult feel. Here are some ideas I have come up with and hope they enjoy it:
- Put together a more grown-up family puzzle. I bought a 500 piece awesome Avengers one from Target that has Thanos looking down on them.
- Watch holiday movies that aren’t really considered holiday feel-good movies or very childish. WE will be watching Die Hard together and making a whole movie night out of it.
- They will be making gingerbread houses, but with different themes. We purchased a Target store one and a football stadium one.
- We will create blessing bags to pass out to homeless people when we see them.
- We will do the Saran Wrap gift game and have an ugly Christmas sweater contest.
- And, of course, as a soccer family, we will watch the World Cup!
This is what I have so far, and I hope that they enjoy these activities that I have planned. If you have any more ideas, please let me know in the comments. And have a blessed holiday season.
