I was really sad when my kids decided that they were too old to make homemade Christmas ornaments anymore. Every year we made homemade ornaments for all the relatives in the family and gave them away as gifts. We made so many great ones too, penguins from their footprints, snowflakes with their hand prints, light bulb reindeer and many more.
My kids are no longer interested in decorating Christmas cookies either! This one made me so sad. Decorating cookies is one of my all time favorite things to do for the holidays. It just isn’t any fun to decorate them by myself.
So, now I have to think of new things to do with my teens in the winter and for the holiday season. I know that sometimes it can be hard to get your teens to want to spend time with you. Here are some ideas that are age appropriate, fun and some will even teach compassion.
1. Snow tubing/skiing/snowboarding- who can frown when speeding down a snow hill?
2. Take them Christmas shopping to help pick out gifts for others
3. Pick a name off of a tree (for those in need) and shop for those gifts
4. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or nursing home for the holidays
5. Cut down a live Christmas tree for your home.
6. Start a new tradition, ex: buy a new ornament every year, watch a certain movie
7. Have a Christmas Eve gift exchange-exchange a small gift with them
8. Have a snowball fight
9. Go ice skating
10. Have a movie night-get in pj’s, drink hot chocolate and watch some festive movies
As my kids have grown up I have noticed they are less and less into the Christmas spirit. Now we are not very religious people, but I still love Christmas. I like to think of others, buy gifts for people and have quality family time.
As you know teens are exactly into all of that family stuff, but if you make it fun, they will come around eventually.
What kinds of things do you do with your teens in the winter?
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