25 Days of Christmas
If you have followed me for awhile you know we do Christmas BIG here in the Manross house. When my boys were small (now 15 + 12) I started 25 days of Christmas. So, this is my 10th year doing this. Beginning the 1st day of December, we will draw each day for that day's Christmas themed activity. You can also schedule instead of drawing if it helps make it more attainable for your family. Every year I get asked for my list. I have changed some of them over the years to adapt to things my kids are now interested in. As they have grown they have outgrown some of the activities, while some have been a favorite since the very beginning. I will share this years list below.
Grinch Night - this is an absolute favorite in our house, I go all out with a Grinch themed feast, we watch all the versions of the Grinch, and even read the book before bed. This one is a LOT of prep so I usually schedule this one for a specific date and we just don't draw anything on that day. The menu consist of Roast Beast (crockpot roast), Who Hash (diced potatoes with sausage + cheese), Who Pudding (regular pudding of choice with red + green m&m's), Who Punch (Lime sherbert, Sprite, + Gingerale), Grinch Kabobs (skewers, green grapes, strawberry for the hat, marshmallow for the ball on the hat), any veggies, rolls, and extra grinchy themed sides + treats.
Elf Night - we watch Elf and have spaghetti. The kids get to choose a candy to enjoy while we watch the movie.
Home Alone Night - We order (pick up) pizza and watch Home Alone 1 & 2
Santa Clause Marathon - We watch all 3 of the Santa Clause movies
Polar Express Night - Homemade hot chocolate + cookies and watch the Polar Express.
Go look at Christmas lights - In Dallas we always went to Deer Field in Plano, they had the best. We are excited to find the perfect spot here in Colorado this year. You can drive, park and walk, or hire someone to let you ride in a horse carriage. We love to bring our thermos with hot chocolate and blankets with us. You can even find a freebie Christmas Scavanger hunt or make your own to see what all you can find on your list.
Ice Skating
Family Game Night - when the kids were smaller I always did Christmas themed games, like Christmas bingo, as they have all gotten older (now 15, 12, and 7) I have adjusted this to just family game night and we play as many games their choice as we can fit into the night. I usually play Christmas music on the surround sound while we play. Christmas themed Game ideas - charades, trivia for a Christmas movie, saran wrap game, re-gift (have everyone wrap up something of theirs and re-gift it to each other), holiday minute to win it,
Chubby Bunny- this one is new to this year. We are going to play chubby bunny with marshmallows and we will draw sentences to read and the others will try to guess what the person with a mouthful of marshmallows is saying.
Decorate cookies ( this one I always schedule for Christmas Eve so they are fresh for Santa ;) )
Decorate a gingerbread house - in the past we always did one big house together. Now that they are older we do a contest. I just buy the Christmas villages and we all decorate our own.
Snow ball fight - in Texas we never had snow around this time of year and even in Colorado we never know exactly what days will have snow. I bought the fake snowballs for this one and we all would hide throughout the house. I would put a buzzer sound over the surround sound from my phone and when it buzzes we take off to find each other and throw our snowballs. Before I had the fake snowballs, we used paper.
Christmas themed pancakes for dinner - I ususally will make reindeer and santa pancakes.
Make treats and deliver to First Responders (Police Department, Fire Department, etc.)
Theme Park - this is another one that we schedule because it is harder to do on a whim. If you live near a theme park, like six flags or something like that, these places are really cool this time of year.
Zoo Lights - MOST zoos will have zoo lights where you can drive through the zoo and see pretty Christmas lights.
Ugly Sweater Party/Cookie/gift Swap - Invite adult friends and kids friends over to participate. You can do a prize for the ugliest adult sweater and ugliest kid sweater, take a vote. Everyone brings a cookie, gift, ornament, etc. to swap. You could also do white elephant or another gift exchange game. It is also fun to do cheap gag gifts. This one for sure needs to be planned ahead so everyone you invite can make it.
Go see a Christmas Performance (Nutcraker or something like that)
Play Santa - buy or make a gift for a friend and secretly deliver it to their house without being seen. Include a note for them to continue the game.
Christmas Craft - make an ornament, paint a nutcraker
Christmas concert/Dance Party- you can put on a Christmas concert, go caroling, go see a Christmas concert, karaoke to Christmas music, blast your Christmas music favorites and dance together, etc.
Go Sledding - if you don't have natural snow, look up places in your area where you can go sledding. A lot of places will do this around this time of year.
A Christmas Story Night - Watch a Christmas story and break out the nerf guns for a family nerf war, be careful not to shoot your eye out. ;)
Holiday Murder Mystery Dinner - create your own or find a kit
Book/Game Shop - Go to your local book store and everyone goes off to find each person in the family a book to read and/or a game to play. Make it fun and have them choose what they think best fits each person.
Other ideas that we aren't doing this year as part of the drawing, but might be fun
cut down a Christmas tree
write a letter to Santa
visit a nursing home (or hospital, for people spending the holidays there it can be lonely)
make festive popcorn
watch A Christmas Carole live
make a treat for a family member and personally deliver it to them
visit santa
crafts (we will do them, but we just do this anyway)
get the DIY playhouse for your kids to color and play in (we did this last year and it was so fun)
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