Christmas in lockdown ideas; How to make lockdown Christmas special

Will we have a Christmas in lockdown?  Will we be able to see our friends and family?  How can we make lockdown Christmas special with kids?  These are just some of the questions that have been swirling around in my head and on the media recently. 

None of us know if we will have Christmas in lockdown, but I think we all know that there will some restrictions in place.  It is going to be different.  There will be no Santa’s Grotto and almost certainly fewer large family or friend gatherings if we are even allowed to do them at all.  As a family of six we are clear that unless there is a significant relaxation in the rules for the Christmas period we will be seeing a lot of one another and not much else….

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Christmas in Lockdown Ideas for Kids

How to make lockdown special for the kids is probably most on my mind.  Even if some restrictions are lifted they will be missing out on so much.   So I am planning to firstly decorate early to get that Christmas spirit going and also to give them what is usually their Christmas Eve box early. 

Usually it just contains hot chocolate, sticker activity books and their Christmas PJs, but this year I am planning to stack it full of things to do so that the activities can take the place of the usual visits to Santa. 

The kids break up from school on the 18th December so I am thinking a Christmas themed activity for everyday between then and Christmas Eve.  That is sure to make lockdown Christmas special and one to remember, but for the right reasons.

• • Make life easy and order a Toucan Christmas Themed box.  Their craft boxes are great anyway as they have all the ideas and all the stuff in them all ready for you, but they are doing a limited edition Christmas craft Box which will be sent out on the 1st December if you pre order. 

It contains craft activities including constructing and decorating a glittering, glowing Gingerbread House,  the Christmas edition toucan Box magazine stacked full of activities and  an awesome sticker sheet.  Genuinely hours of fun! 

These also make a great gift for someone if you can’t meet up with nieces or nephews for example.  The affiliate code below will give you 50% off your first box so its a bargain too!

Toucan Box Sign Up

If you are more into the do it yourself approach here are a few links to some ideas you may like to try:

Sparkly Snowflake Craft for Kids

Popular Christmas Craft Ideas To Try

Popsicle Stick Christmas Ornament Crafts For Kids

You may also want to check out 13 Awesome Kids Lockdown Birthday Ideas to make it special

• • Do a doorstep photo shoot with Christmas jumpers and silly Santa hats.  There are loads of companies who can do this for you or you can just buy a tripod and do your own…

 

• • Make a Christmas Stop motion clip to send to friends and family.  This is maybe one for older kids, but my son aged 9 and his sister aged 5 spent a whole day quietly staging a pirate story using their stikbots. 

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I know he will love doing a Christmas story and just think about all of that good educational stuff that is going on as they plan the storyline out and work out how to stage the figures.  They will need to borrow a phone or tablet and download one of the animation apps.

• • Make a paper chain…  We did this last year and it kept the kids occupied for ages.  You can buy a kit that has everything pre gummed or has stickers to attach the chains together or you could just reuse newspaper. 

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So on day one paint your newspaper in Christmas colours and perhaps even use stamps to decorate it and on day two cut it into strips and use glue  or tape to make your paper chain rings

• • Bake and decorate a Gingerbread House

We do this every year as it is a Scandinavian tradition as I lived in Norway as a small child.  You can find out all about it here.

• • Sticking with the scandi theme why not make your own Christmas Gnomes Tomte Nisse (this will need a needle and thread and a glue gun so you would definitely need to be very involved and it is probably only for older children), but they are very cute once made.

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  • Have a Christmas PJ and movie day.  Our favourite Christmas Movie as a family is Home Alone.  I also love Elf, but the kids not yet – heathens!

 

• • If you have been reading my posts recently you may have noticed I am obsessed with our fire pit, but it is amazing so during the build up to Christmas we will also be making hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows at the fire pit.  Hell we may even sing some caroles…

Christmas in Lockdown Ideas to make it special

There you have it Christmas in lockdown ideas for kids for everyday from school break up to Christmas Eve, but what about the big day itself.  How to make lockdown Christmas special when you can’t have that big family dinner that so many of us are used to is tricky… 

Let’s hope that there is some relaxation of the rules so that we can see at least our immediate family, but there are no guarantees at this stage. Don’t worry though we have got you covered and  below I have some ideas for you which I hope will make lockdown Christmas special for you and your littles even if you can’t be with the rest of your loved ones.

•  Don’t compare it back to Christmases past.  That is a sure fire way of making you feel glum.  What we need here is to accept the situation and get our positive pants on however tight they may feel after lockdown.  I am determined to see this Christmas as different, but not necessarily worse.  Embrace the chance for a quieter, more immediate family focused Christmas – I know we may all be slightly sick of the sight of one another at this stage, but still positive pants 😉

 

• Find a game that you can easily play over zoom.  We have just been sent a game by Asmodee called ‘Confident?’  which would be perfect for playing at a distance as you get white boards to write on and two sets of the clue cards.  You can read my full review here, but if we cannot be together on Christmas Day our plan would be to send our immediate family a board and some cards and to play over zoom.  It will work brilliantly I think. 

Other games like Pictionary and Charades or even Trivial Pursuit would also probably work as you can divide up the questions/ clues across two locations.

• Plan to spend boxing day without electronics and do things like play board games as a family.  Or maybe even do a jigsaw.  As a child we always got a new family board game each Christmas so at some point out it would come and it would nice to do that with my kids more, but we are all always so busy so maybe 2020 is the year to be more still at Christmas.  So chuck on those Christmas PJs and start being in the moment

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• Go over the top with preparing the Christmas dinner table.  So you can’t have the massive celebration you had planned, but you can see that as a a positive in that you will have more time to spend on making the table look fabulous

 

• Prepare  some special Christmas drinks.  Since there is to be less driving out here there and everywhere to see everyone why not treat yourself to  Christmas cocktail.  I am thinking I may even make a mocktail for the kids as I know they will love that. Obviously I will need to find some super tacky drinks decorations for this purpose too…

 

• Spread out the gift giving.  That flurry or crazy animalistic present unwrapping is not a great idea when they is nothing else planned for the day. All the excitement is over too soon!  So instead this year I recommend giving presents in different ways.  Initially I would do stocking and one larger present, then do breakfast and the after that do a scavenger hunt for some of their other presents.  Then do the main opening session before lunch with a final one gift each after dinner.

 

• Make sure that at least one of the gifts is something that you can all do together whether it be play a game, do a jigsaw or build a Lego Death Destroyer…  A point of focus to keep everyone engaged will make it all feel less just like another day

 

• You could also think about doing a secret Santa with your family or friends that you are unable to see in person and then that could be the focus of a zoom call

 

• If you do a friends zoom call how about running a find it quiz so … have one person as the challenger and then have to ask each household to find an item.  The first team to find it in their house and bring it back to the zoom call is the winner. It sounds daft, but is hilarious!

 

• Why not get super dressed up for Christmas dinner even if it is just you and the kids?  We may not have anywhere to wear our party dresses to this year, but it doesn’t mean we can’t still wear them!!

 

• This might be my favourite one of all – order at least some of the food ready prepared.  If you are not allowed to have guests see this as your year off and a time to kick back and just enjoy being together

I really do hope that there is a safe way for us to see our families this Christmas, but of course none of us want this at the expenses of lives so if we really can’t all be together then we will simply have to do some of these things.  With these Christmas in Lockdown Ideas to make it special you will be able to create a different, but not necessarily worse Christmas and at the same time you can start planning fake Christmas for July.