It’s official! The 2021 holiday season has begun! Chances are, you’ll be gathering with friends and family at some point between now and early January, 2022. to celebrate. Whether you’re hosting a small group or large crowd, it’s nice to have some fun family activities planned to encourage interaction among your guests. Some ideas might require supplies, so it’s best to plan ahead. You can make sure you have everything you need on hand. Making fun and games part of your holiday parties adds a special, festive flare to the occasion!
Perhaps you’re not the creative type. Maybe you aren’t sure what types of fun family activities would go over well at a Christmas, New Year or another holiday party. No worries, we’ve got your back! Keep reading for five easy-to-implement ideas that you can adapt to various age groups!
Make the “Heads Up” app part of your fun family activities
It’s easy to install an app on your cell phone from the Google play store. If you want to add some fun family activities to your next holiday party, look for the “Heads Up” app. It contains various types of guessing games that are similar to charades and “Name that Tune.” One of the games involves one person holding the phone up to his or her forehead while names of actions appear on the screen. Another person or people act out the behaviors while the person holding the phone tries to guess. For instance, one action might be “climbing a mountain” or “making a sandwich.” If the guesser answers correctly they quickly tilt the phone upward to register the score. If he or she guesses incorrectly, the phone gets tilted downward to record the miss.
There are lots of fun guessing games on the app, such as “foreign accents” or “famous people,” etc. You need at least two people to play but can have as many players as you want beyond two. You can even play with teams if you like, such as kids versus adults or girls versus boys or parents versus their kids. These fun family activities are a perfect way to pass the time while the meal is finishing cooking or later in the evening as an after-dinner game.
Fun family activities can include community service work
When you’ve got a house full of family and friends, it’s the perfect time to help those in need. Consider choosing a project, such as sending Christmas cards to U.S. military service members who are deployed overseas or a coat drive. Send out memos ahead to all of those who will be attending the gathering. This is especially necessary if you’re running a coat drive or food collection so that guests can bring a contribution with them when they arrive. Block out a certain amount of time where everyone will come together to work on the project.
If you want to keep things simple, you might choose to bake some cookies for an elderly neighbor or collect books to donate to a local library. You can also make the focus of your fun family activities a planning/brainstorm session. Each person can offer ideas for future community service projects. Discuss times, dates, locations and ways to carry out the plans, then create copies of a calendar for everyone to take home with them. If your group is up for it, you can schedule one project a month for an entire year! Whether you do that or simply schedule one or two projects, making your plans as a group is a fun thing to do at a holiday party!
Make a craft together
This type of activity would definitely require planning ahead because you’d need supplies. You can make wreaths or other door displays. Another fun holiday craft is to paint or use vinyl decals to decorate wooden serving trays. Maybe your guests would enjoy making an ornament to hang on their tree and remember your time together in the years to come. You might want to have a separate craft for children and adults. Or, you can choose something that each family works on together.
Set up an old-fashioned Christmas corner
If you have a fireplace or family room or other spare area in your home, you can delight your guests with an old-fashioned Christmas corner. Fun family activities might include stringing cranberries and popcorn, listening to Christmas stories read aloud or watching classic Christmas movies, such as “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Frosty the Snowman.” If you really want to take your Old Fashioned Christmas corner to the next level, you can have a candle-dipping station or provide supplies to make gingerbread houses! A pomander ball is another old fashioned idea (that would also serve as a craft). These traditional ornaments symbolize good health and good fortune. They’re easy to make and will fill your house with a wonderful aroma of cloves, cinnamon and citrus!
Bake confections to give as gifts
There’s nothing like receiving a gift of homemade candies or confections during the holidays. You can bake such gifts as part of your fun family activities during a holiday party! To avoid an over-crowded kitchen, you can work in small groups in shifts. Some ideas for what to make include peanut brittle, homemade caramels or taffy, hardtack mints or other candy, peppermint bark, decorated cookies, trail mix or sugared cranberries! You can provide wrapping supplies or have each guest bring a container to package the gifts they make.
Let us know if you try these fun family activities at your next holiday party, and leave a comment if you have more ideas to share!
In the meantime, here’s a post from our archives with great Christmas gift ideas!
