Magical heartwarming Christmas ideas

[luludou]

How about putting down ideas of what would make Christmas even more magical, for us?

Here's what I'm talking about:

- Have a day in the house with the family, with games, easy food, fluffy pillows and blankets, Christmas movies, hot chocolate bar. (made even more special if there's a snowstorm outside!)

- Make your own pizza party and eat beneath the Christmas tree with lights twinkling (turn off all other lights)... followed by a Christmas movie ... and why not sleep in the LR with only the Christmas lights on.

- Christmas light expedition with hot chocolate & Christmas music... I know some of you do this.. and I wish we did it... of course our teens aren't interested but maybe me & DH can do this next year.

- Using Christmas dishes all through the month of December. I do not have Christmas dishes but I think I'll just buy a breakfast set (cup + small plate)... this way I do not add to my cabinet clutter but I would enjoy MY Christmas fun.

- I'd like to have a 'Santa Magic Key' by my door.

 

[happy2bme]

Great ideas, Lucie.

I would love to have Christmas dishes to use for the entire month of December.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do - make time to do these memory maker type things. Maybe I'll make that party of my Rudy Day plans this month!

 

[Christmas Girl]

Lucy, I love all of your ideas!

I'm going to dedicate some time to this on Rudy day and ask DH if he has any ideas of things we could do together to make Christmas more magical.

Thanks!

 

[alisonmcg]

What wonderful ideas! I don't have any Christmas dishes but I did use a Christmas table cloth and placemats all through the month of December and to the 6th January.

 

[ChristmasPir8]

Those are some good ideas. I would like to do a movie night, my kids are not big movie watchers but we can try to start that. I have snowman dishes that I keep out through Feb usually so that's fun. We usually go see the "tacky Lights" that are very famous/popular (there have been TV shows on it on TLC) but we didn't do it this year, I missed it.

 

[Minta]

AWESOME ideas.... I think I will have to "borrow" some of your ideas

A whole day at home.. in jammies... no company, no phone calls. Spending the day as a family watching christmas movies, building a gingerbread house, sitting around the Christmas tree eating homemade pizza playing board games with Christmas music playing in the back ground. End the day with another Christmas movie or 2, hot cocoa and home made christmas cookies.

That's going into my Christmas notebook.

 

[Pam Spaur]

Wow! I love all these ideas. I have my mom's Christmas dishes, and haven't used them for a couple of years...ok, maybe five! It is just me, and Sweetie on Sunday. BUT, I can do it for just me. Since I will be retired this Christmas, I can plan a weekend with DGS where we can do a Christmas craft and drink hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie. I love this, Lucie; thanks for starting this!

 

[Colleen in PA]

Love this thread!

We decorated a gingerbread house for the first time as a family this year...it was pre-baked and super easy & FUN! Then we watched all of the old "claymation" & cartoon specials. We ate lots of different appetizers throughout the day and finished with Breakfast for Dinner! My DS(5) said that was his favorite day...after Christmas itself, of course!

I want to take my boys to a Christmas concert this year...either at church or the local high school...didn't get to it this year because it WASN'T ON THE CALENDAR! (Not so subtle note to self - LOL!)

I would also like to get together with other families and go caroling...soups and pizza after?

 

[candysprinkles]

I have a big list of the things we do like this...I started doing 12 of them a few years ago, then went to 25. I now have a list of about 40.

Polar Express PJ Party: we have done this one for several years now. We have a typical pajama party for just our family with all the works...pizza, popcorn, movies, games, etc. Everybody gets a Christmas gift...new pajamas. We watch the movie and I make homemade hot cocoa on the stove.

A Christmas Story: We have Chinese for dinner (in the movie after the dogs eat the turkey, they eat at a Chinese restaurant.) I make OH Fuuuuuudge. We watch the movie. We have played silly games that I made up, like "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" or "I Triple Dog Dare You!."

I have more, will post them later. Apparently, dd stayed after school and practice was cancelled, so I have to run and get her now.

 

[candysprinkles]

A couple of others that we do every year...

Birthday Party for Jesus: We have cake, we have party food, we celebrate the reason for the season. We read the Christmas story from the Bible. Last year we made a nativity ornament.

Winter Wonderland: we go downtown to see the "World's Largest Christmas Tree" which is a tree they make out of the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors monument. We walk around downtown and on the way home we do the Christmas lights tour thing. I usually give the kids a gift, one year winter coats, another year it was scarves I knitted. This year I want to knit Christmas themed hats.

Grinchmas: We watch both the grinch movies. (The cartoon and the Jim Carrey movie.) This year we will eat roast beast for our feast. One year we actually went to Grinchmas at Universal Islands of Adventure on Chrismtas Eve. They have the entire Whoville area set up for Christmas, a Grinch in the Jim Carrey costume from the movie, actors in costumes and make up just like the live action movie. They had snow trucked in for the kids to play in, an ice sled ride plus movie effects to make it snow.

 

[luludou]

CandySprinkles I love those ideas. PJs all day is a must!

 

[Nutcracker]

I have some Christmas dishes and I love to get them out for the month of December. Now that my DSs are old enough for me not to gasp everytime they get them out to use! LOL! If you don't have dishes why not just some Christmas paper plates. After my DS school party we used up the leftovers for at least a week. Gotta love the Dollar Store for that stuff. We also like to put on Christmas movies and put together a Christmas puzzle while attempting to watch it. That way I can watch the movie w/o too much interruption b/c DH and DSs love puzzles.

 

[girlsinmo]

Lucie thanks for starting this great thread. So many wonderful ideas.

 

[Minta]

I am thinking about kicking of the PJ day with a nice breakfest casserole and maybe some monkey bread (the kids love this). I mentioned some of these ideas to DH last night and he is all for it. I think we will sit down with the kids this weekend and discuss this further to get their input.

I am thinking maybe doing this one day in Oct and make it a halloween themed day and one day in Nov and make that day a Thanksgiving themed day..... Going to see what I can come up with for those 2 months...

 

[Christmaslvr]

I'm loving this thread, thanks Lucie!

It's just me, DBF and DD19 (oops, she'll be 20 for next Christmas!!) but we come up with some things to do.

We drive around and look at lights with cookies and hot chocolate. We watch movies but I think this year I want to make it a little more special. I don't have everyday Christmas dishes, I do have a service for 8 of Christmas Spode that I've only used 3x in the last 25 yrs or so! I think I will look for dishes this year...love the idea of using them from Dec 1 on. We will be moving to FL later this year, so no idea what there will be to do there.

I will definitely be referring to this thread all year!!

 

[luludou]

A Christmas tea!! for girls-only. Would love this with friends or with my mom & sister.

 

[luludou]

Let's not forget the magical elves - for all ages!

 

[candysprinkles]

Here are some of the new ideas from my list. I am still working on them for this Christmas. I want to do a few days on Christmas Around the World. (What could be better than sneaking in some educational/cultural projects in the disguise of fun parties?)

Feliz Navidad Fiesta: a Christmas Pinata, Mexican food night, maybe a sombrero and a Mexican hat dance, a gift in their shoes from Papa Noel; which is a tradition I remember from Spanish Club in HS. (I took 4 years of HS Spanish, was able to test out of a couple in college and then took a couple more in college, enough for a minor in it.)

Mele Kalikimaka (sp?) A Hawaiian Christmas Luau I am hoping to find some clearance things during the summer for our luau...grass skirts, leis, tiki type stuff, etc.

Oh, Tannebaum. A German Christmas and possibly French?? Or, Swiss?? Still a work in progress...but I have learned how to make a couple of the traditional ornaments from some countries online. (Moravian stars and the folded woven hearts.)

Minta, I am wanting to move towards a fun night each month, too. One thing I have planned this year is to do the Nightmare Before Christmas in between Halloween and Thanksgiving, somewhere around the 15th of November as sort of a bridge toward the holiday season. We usually put up our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, but don't decorate it until Thanksgiving Night or Black Friday.

 

[Minta]

Minta, I am wanting to move towards a fun night each month, too. One thing I have planned this year is to do the Nightmare Before Christmas in between Halloween and Thanksgiving, somewhere around the 15th of November as sort of a bridge toward the holiday season. We usually put up our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, but don't decorate it until Thanksgiving Night or Black Friday.

We have a few Halloween themed movies already... Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, Garfield and a couple others. My DD loves the move Twitches so I am thinking about getting them for her for her b-day which is in Oct. I want to make cute halloween themed food too.

For the Thanksgiving Themed night... we have Charlie Brown and Garfield Thanksgiving specials on DVD.. going to look for a couple more. I was also thinking about including Miracle on 34th street since it does have have Thanksgiving and Christmas in it.

Trying to spread out the holiday cheer and magic.