9 Ideas for Family Fun This Winter Season

9 Christmas Activities to Try During Family Gatherings

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun… That last three-letter word is the theme of every family gathering from here to Timbuktu. But which Christmas or wintertime crafts can you make this year and what games can you try that everyone will enjoy? Keep reading to find out!

1. Hang glass Christmas ornaments.

DIY Christmas ornaments are usually a fun way to bring some personalization to your holiday decorations. To customize glass ornaments, you can fill or decorate them using any pattern or color scheme you want. Here are some great ideas to get you and your family started.

2. Host a candy cane Olympics.

What do you get when you add a certain white-and-red-striped candy often associated with Christmas time with the competitive streak family gatherings seem to spark? A candy cane Olympics, of course! You can come up with creative ways to add this sugary sweet to your games or choose to include any of these hilarious candy cane games. It will be perhaps the first time the younger generation in your family gets cheers and applause for ”playing with their food.”

3. Start a string art project.

Does your family consist of knitting enthusiasts and budding crocheters? Start a string art project to finally get answers to this age-old question: who is truly the best string master in your family? Feel free to find inspiration from any of these exciting string crafts.

4. Unwrap with oven mitts.

Shake up the traditional gift opening session by adding some mitts, two dice, and Christmas hats to the equation. To play this game, you’ll need to choose a gift you can wrap in such a way that it would make a grown adult raise their arms in despair when trying to open it. Choose someone to start things off. This person, the unwrapper, will wear the hat and use their oven mitt-clad hands to open a present. The player will continue unwrapping the gift until the person chosen to play after them rolls doubles and the gift is passed on. The person who finally opens the gift wins the game and the present.

5. Create a holiday card display.

Christmas card displays are a wonderful way to showcase all the thoughtful written messages you receive throughout the holiday season. This can be as simple as involving the whole family in arranging your cards in a tree shape on a blank wall, or you can decide to go bigger and frame your favorite messages with popsicle sticks and turn them into ornaments you can hang on the Christmas tree for years to come.

6. Build a time capsule.

The easiest way to document the passage of time at all the holiday season family gatherings is to build a keepsake time capsule. Not only is this a great bonding activity, but years from now when you look back at the things you put in, you’ll get to relive all the joyful memories of Christmases past. Pick out your favorite things from this year’s festivities, use this helpful DIY tutorial to make a capsule, bury it with a marker, and set a family calendar reminder to open it up with your loved ones on a date well in the future.

7. Try to name that Christmas carol.

How well do you know Franz Xaver Gruber’s “Silent Night”? Can you identify “Once in Royal David’s City” from a single measure? Probably not, but everyone will have a wonderful time trying to guess whether you just hummed “Joy to the World” and figuring out whether the little Lord Jesus in the “Away in a Manger” lyrics laid down his young, soft, or sweet head.

8. Make a Christmas tree garland.

There’s something about garlands that always bring a festive touch to any corner of your home. So why not make one as a family? You can put together a bead garland to wrap around your Christmas tree, instantly turn your front door into the focal point of your porch with a faux magnolia one, or add some sprigs of silver dollar eucalyptus to bring cheer to any staircase and make your home wintertime ready.

9. Stamp snowflakes on paper bags.

Forget about that complicated Christmas craft you saw on TikTok last week that requires hundreds of dollars in supplies. Save your money and enjoy some family bonding time stamping snowflakes on paper bags. All you need are a couple of different-sized lunch paper bags, hot glue guns, scissors, and clear string and hooks for hanging. You can even take it a step further and actually make giant paper bag snowflakes.

Enjoy the holidays!

We hope the 9 ideas in this post help turn your family gatherings into memorable fun events that will have you looking back with a smile even well after New Year’s Day. Feel free to schedule an appointment with us for any post-holiday cleanings or cosmetic dentistry touch-ups. Not only will you get your smile ready for the celebrations, but you’ll also walk into the new year with the assurance that your oral health is in tip-top shape.