What better time to enjoy an evening under the stars? Wrap up cosy, get out some blankets and snuggle under the winter sky. Toast some marshmallows, roast some chestnuts and sip on mulled wine (not just for Christmas!). Try making some shapes with sparklers (top tip- stick them in carrots to make them a bit safer for little hands).
Ask your neighbours to join you – we live on a lovely street and we all went out onto the street on Christmas Eve to ring our bells together (socially distanced), you can’t have friends round but you can go out onto your street to see some other faces than the ones in your household!
This one may need booking in advance! Hire a Cinema at Home package. We hired one before Christmas from Dollydaydreams, it made watching films a lot more exciting and memorable.
Or you can just make more of a film night at home by adding popcorn, making tickets to ‘sell’ and creating posters of the films you’re watching to pin up.
Get some cheesy music on and dance! We’ve got a disco ball that comes out for occasions like this. You can find a long list of fun Games for children that you could play too (Christmas themed but you can adapt for any time of year). Staying up late? Make a night of it by building dens in your lounge and having a family sleepover.
Just because it’s your household, you can still keep things special. Get out your favourite dress (who knows when you’ll be wearing it out again!) and get glammed up, I’ll be letting my daughter paint our nails!
There’s really no need for anything fancy and this works particularly well if you have older children. Charades, Who Am I, Pictionary… have a go at all the family favourites. We’ve had a lot of laughs over lockdown playing charades and it’s become a favourite in our house.
What’s a party without decorations? You could get children involved in making paper chains, and never underestimate the power of balloons! How many can you get into a room? A whole night of fun!!
From a finger buffet to a pizza party, make food part of the main event. I’m going to get my kids involved in preparing it, my youngest loves baking, and laying the table too.
Make sure that you plan some times in advance and book in zoom calls with family and friends. If you have other friends and family with children, use the time to play some games. One of the best games for a zoom call is shouting out an object that you have in the house, and the first person to return to the screen with that object gets a point. Kens Quiz’s is a great website full of quiz ideas.
Plan a walk ready to go on the next day, to walk of the food and any excesses! You can find a list of walks and the great outdoors here.
If you need some more child’s birthday ideas – my daughter celebrated her 6th birthday in lockdown, I wrote a little review of what we did, read it here.