Celebrating Christmas this year may look a little different as the pandemic put restrictions on a lot of activities. However, the good news is that there are still creative ways to celebrate Christmas at home. Whether you live alone or with your family, you can refer to these “Creative Ways to Spend Christmas 2020 at Home” list if you think you’ll find Christmas at home boring.
Whether you live alone or with family, it can get pretty difficult to think of creative ways to stay entertained at home. Why don’t you try one of these options this year to create a more meaningful memory with friends and family? We’ve put together some alternative ways to celebrate Christmas this year.
If you live alone, you can schedule a virtual Christmas dinner with your friends or family members and enjoy your favourite holiday meal over a video call. It may be the perfect time to catch-up and wrap up the year with your favourite people. If you live with your family, enjoy time as a family, cooking your favourite Christmas meal together. Talk about meaningful things or have deeper conversations you would normally never have at the dinner table. Tell your family how much you appreciate them. Another way to have meaningful and fun conversations is to make a box filled with conversation topics or specific questions on pieces of paper. Each person can take turns picking one paper out of the box and either answer the question or start talking about the topic. This will make your dinner time a little more interactive and entertaining. Don’t forget to take lots of pictures because a picture has the power to make a day last forever.
A lot of people like baking, but when life gets busy, even baking can feel like a chore. You have a whole day to spend at home, so why not try baking something you’ve always wanted to try? It would be even more fun if you plan to do this with your friends over a video call at the same time. Each of you can bake something different and if you’re feeling extra nice at the end of it, you can exchange your baked goods through contactless delivery- under the assumption that your friends live nearby. Baking can be super fun as a family too and it’s a great activity to enjoy with kids as well.
Write a card to a friend or prepare a small gift and exchange them with your friends or families (you can do contactless delivery yourself or ship it to them). Even if the gifts arrive earlier, keep them unopened so that you can watch each other open them on the same day over a video call. It’s like a virtual gift exchange! Do your holiday shopping earlier this year as there are delays with deliveries.
Same idea as mentioned above but if you live with your family, you don’t have to do this virtually! Whether your family likes to do stocking stuffing or the plain gift exchange, have fun and try to think of something different this year instead of an expected gift (unless you know exactly what they want) to make it more special. Again, make sure you do your shopping earlier if you’re making a purchase online.
If you’re a fan of video games, spend the day enjoying your favourite game with your friends! A lot of video games involve multiple players and you can play with others even if you live alone. If you’re a big gamer, you probably know already, but you can use communicating platforms like Discord (www.discord.com) to talk with your friends while gaming to make things more fun. If life was too busy with work or Covid-19 stressed you out mentally, game away and let yourself be stress-free! If you live with your family, you can either play board games or card games, or even VR games if you have VR headsets at home!
If you live alone, Christmas is the perfect time to binge watch all the movies and Netflix series you’ve wanted to watch or watch a bunch of Christmas movies if you’re feeling extra festive. Grab your favourite snack and get cozy!
If your family likes to watch movies, turn on a favourite list of holiday movies and enjoy with your favourite snacks! This seems to be a tradition for a lot of families, and if this is the case, keep it going! If this is something you’ve never done as a family, try it this year. Here are some of popular Christmas movies to watch as a family:
It’s not easy to meet your daily exercise goal on Christmas Day especially if you’re staying home all day. If you’re bored at home or you feel like you’re lacking energy, try going outside for a brief walk- trust me, you’ll feel so much better. If you want to get extra steps in, try talking on the phone with a friend while you walk because time flies when you’re having a conversation!
If you live with family members, it would be great if you could do home workouts as a family, but going out for a walk around the neighbourhood and enjoying the outdoors could be a great alternative! Walking is known to reduce stress levels, burn calories, lower blood sugar levels, boost energy, improve circulation, etc., so there is no reason for you to say no to this. Go get some fresh air and burn off those calories with your family!
If you like arts and crafts, try making things like candles, bar soap, scarves, knit hats, wreath, gingerbread house, etc. You’ll be wondering how time flew by so quickly! If you have a Christmas tree at home, you probably have it decorated already, but you can add additional ornaments after you make a few. All of these activities can be done as a family too, so if your family likes to do crafty things together, refer to these ideas!
Also, make sure to turn on some holiday music in the background and let your creativity soar! If you have any other craft ideas, that’s totally cool too- just have all the materials and tools ready beforehand so you can get into it on Christmas Day!
We all miss hanging out with our family and friends, especially around the holidays! What's important is that everyone stays safe and follow the rules provided by the health officials. 2020 was difficult and we’ve had enough of it. It is crucial that we follow the provincial health restrictions and guidelines to protect everyone so that we can face a more hopeful 2021. Let's use this year’s Christmas as a time to recharge and reflect with all the fun activities you can do at home. Stay safe and happy holidays!