Christmas can be hard for kids (and adults too!). The build up is immense, often starting in November with school fair’s and rehearsals for the Christmas nativity. We try to keep calm and enjoy the build up whilst not going overboard. This year we visited the Playmobil Santa’s Grotto at our local shopping centre, visited a National Trust house which had been transformed for Christmas, as well as taking a ride on our local Santa Express. We squeezed all these around normal weekend activities and swimming lessons!
Since the children finished school things were a little more relaxed. We had birthday parties to attend but also last minute Christmas preparation. We also make sausage rolls and mince pies so like to be at home to make these.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day take care of themselves, with a little help from our Christmas Eve crate tradition, but come Boxing Day it can sometimes feel like a bit of an anti-climax. This year I kept a few things in mind in case the children started to feel bored.
6 things to do with kids on Boxing Day
- Weather permitting then we love to go outside and get some fresh air and exercise. This year the children took their scooters and we went to our local park where we bumped into quite a few we knew from school. It seems like others had the same idea as us!
- If the weather isn’t so good then why not build a gingerbread house. I bought a few kits this year but haven’t got round to making them. This is a great activity for children, especially if you use a pre-made kit. After you’ve had fun building it you can eat it.
- Find out if there’s a local pantomime on. We went this year and it was lovely to get out of the house and be entertained for a couple of hours.
- When the lights get switched on why not go out for a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt? This is something we recently started doing and it’s amazing the variety and colours of lights you can see. The children get bonus points for spotting candy cane lights as these are our favourite type.
- Play a favourite board game. Now my children are old enough to play games without constantly cheating they love the whole family to play games together. They both got a few new games for Christmas but still kept bringing out Who Tooted? Yep, they are both still finding the bodily functions stage hilarious!
- You could make a start on your Thank You cards. I think it’s polite to send Thank You cards and always make sure there are sent within a week of Christmas or birthdays. Whilst Boxing Day might be too soon to start them, as we make our own it can actually be quite fun to sit down and do some Boxing Day crafting.
If I wasn’t a parent I would probably be watching festive films or meeting up with friends in a pub. These days I’m more likely to be found playing board games, providing more food or cutting toys from their over-the-top packaging.
Do you have any Boxing Day traditions? If so I would love to hear about them.
I think some of these ideas would work with boyfriends too 🙂 We played loads of board games over Christmas, have you tried Ticket to Ride?
There’s some great ideas, when I was younger I’d always go round to my Grandma’s for a family movie day and to play with new toys and games! xo