One of the many reasons that small children can bring joy into your life is their innate desire to please their parents and their enthusiasm in helping adults. Involve your children in your holiday party planning as a way to connect as a family, foster responsibility and social skills in your children, and to have a lot of fun. You can have family meetings about the party so everyone can give their suggestions. Then you can give the kids jobs to do to get ready for the holiday party.
Step 1
Write a list of guests with your children. Set out paper and crafts so the kids can make the invitations. If one of the kids is technologically savvy she can create invitations on the computer. You and your child can do this activity together. If you have more than one child they can all work together or you can let one design the cards, another write in the information and others can stamp and address the envelopes.
Step 2
Brainstorm possible activities with the kids. If there will be a lot of children coming to the party you can have your kids be in charge of kid activities that they can run while the grownups socialize. An example of a fun game for kids is Pin the Star on the Tree (played like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. If you are doing everything at the party as a family help they kids come up with activities that everyone would enjoy doing such as a sing-a-long. The kids can put together a CD or iPod mix of fun Christmas songs for everyone to enjoy.
Step 3
Allow the kids to help decorate. They can make snowmen, gifts, Santa Claus decorations out of paper and crafts and hang them around the house. You can bring them to a craft store with you and let them pick out decorations for them to set up at home. Possible ideas are fluff and glitter for the kids to put out around the house as snow, mistletoe to hang from the doorway and if you are eating dinner they can design a holiday themed place mat for each guest.
Step 4
Enlist the kids' help in choosing the foods for the party. They can then help make certain dishes or bake cookies and decorate them. You can fill an afternoon with fun by making sugar cookies and having the kids use holiday cookie cutters to give them fun shapes. After baking the cookies and allowing them to cool the kids can decorate them with different colored icing, sprinkles and other fun edible embellishments.
Step 5
Assign your kids as hosts to the party. This will build social skills and manners. It will also help them feel special and important. Have the kids wait by the door for guests to arrive. Have them welcome the guests and take their jackets. When a guest departs, the kids can give him a candy cane or gift bag and thank him for coming. For younger or more nervous children you can practice this with them a few times before the party starts.
Things You'll Need
- Crafts (paper, pens, markers, glitter, cotton fluff)
- Envelopes
- Stamps
- Sugar cookie dough
- Icing
- Baking decorations
Member Comments