3 Unique Activities for Kids and Elders to Make the 2021 Holiday Season Memorable
The holiday season is upon us and although we’ve spent over a year now living in various degrees of lockdown, there’s nothing to stop us from making the most of the last month of 2021.
Whether you’re planning on hosting a small get-together with family or friends, taking that long-awaited trip, or keeping celebrations quiet, we’ve compiled 3 activities to create unique memories for kids and elders.
1. Make a Digital or Hard Copy Photobook (or Even a Video Photo Album)
Do you have more photos on your phone or camera than you know what to do with? If you find yourself too busy to look back at the photos you’ve snapped over the year, consider taking some time to go through them. It may feel overwhelming, but you will very likely be surprised at how much your family has experienced in 2021 despite COVID restrictions. Even small memories like the day you treated the kids to ice cream during a walk, your first meal out together at a restaurant, your kids visiting their grandparents for the first time after a long hiatus… all of these moments add up to a pretty special year. Memorable moments aren’t always about the big vacations.
You can review the photos as a family and then pick the best ones that reflect these special moments. You can then package these photos into a hard copy photobook for printing, a digital photo album, or even turn them into a video album with music overlay. You can create one specifically to share with your parents as a gift and/or create one for your family. And imagine how easy it would be to remind yourself of what happened with each passing year if you repeated this each year!
There are many options available for printing photobooks or creating digital albums.
Note: NannyTax is not engaged in any affiliate marketing, so we do not earn any commission from these recommendations.
Printing photobooks
https://www.vistaprint.ca/photo-gifts/photo-books
https://www.costcophotocentre.ca/ProductDetails/Photobooks
https://www.optimalprint.ca/en
Digital photo albums
https://www.canva.com/create/photo-books/
https://www.smilebox.com/maker/photo-album-maker/
https://www.adobe.com/express/create/photo-book (for those that have the Adobe suite of apps)
Video photo albums
If you have a Mac, you can try using iMovie and if not, you can use any other video editing software (if you already happen to have it or you can buy it if it has other future uses for you)
Here are some options that include free plans:
https://invideo.io/workflow/marketing-templates
2. Bring Out Simple Card Games or Try “Would You Rather”
Card games help everyone to engage in simple math, which is great mental stimulation for kids and seniors alike.
Here are two games with pretty simple instructions.
BLACKJACK CARD GAME
Goal: All you have to do is get as close to 21 as possible without going over.
All numbered cards represent their number (so a 2 is a 2 regardless of the suit, i.e. it doesn’t matter if it’s a space, a heart, diamond, etc.), and all face cards (King, Queen, Jack) represent the number 10. Take out the jokers in the deck to keep things simple.
How to play
- Assign yourself to be the card dealer
- Use coins or tokens to distribute to the winner of each round
- Start by dealing 2 cards to each person who is playing
- Once each player has two cards, ask each player to look at their cards, add up the numbers and then decide who wants another card or not (to get as close to 21 as possible without going over)
- Continue this process with each player until all players do not want any more cards
- Get everyone to reveal their cards
- The one with the closest sum of numbers to 21 without going over wins that round and gets a coin/token
- After as many rounds as your family wants to play, the winner with the most coins/tokens wins!
WOULD YOU RATHER…?
This is a fun game guaranteed to make the family laugh. It can be played in many forms, including free apps, creating your own list, or even through different YouTube videos.
Here are some family-friendly starter lists to get the game going:
https://parade.com/1249972/marynliles/would-you-rather-questions-for-kids/
To turn this into a game with points and to see how well each family member knows the others, have each member write down their guesses to the answers of others first.
How to play
- Give each family member a piece of paper with a grid. The grid would have names of each member across the top and spaces for the answers to each question in each row.
- Start by reading out the first question. You can decide how many questions will make one round. 10-15 questions tends to be a good number.
- For example, the first question might be something like “Would you rather live without the internet for 7 days or live without your favourite food for one year?”
- Each member then writes down what they think each other member would answer into the grid on their piece of paper.
- After all questions have been asked, go around the table and get each person to state their answer. For each answer guessed correctly, the member scores a point.
- The member with the most points for that round, wins that round.
- You may be surprised at how little or how well your family knows one another!
- Repeat until the laughs have run out!
3. Hold a Cookie (or other Baked Goods) Swap
This is a fun way to get the kids involved in baking, collaborating with friends, extended family, or neighbours. If you have a nanny, consider having them join in the preparation and sharing in the treats. And a portion of the baked goods can be packaged up and shared with their grandparents!
- Get your kids to ask which of their friends would be interested in participating.
- Make sure there are no food allergies and if there are, everyone must take precautions to avoid the ingredients. Consider printing the ingredients and including them with your baked goods.
- Make a few dozen of your favourite cookies, brownies, or slice up a cake.
- Package them up into bags, boxes, or tins for each participating friend/family/neighbour.
- Arrange a date to swap the baked goods.
- Enjoy!
In case you need some inspiration, here are some holiday baking recipe ideas, but you’ll likely have your signature favourites!
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/easy-christmas-desserts-for-a-crowd/
We hope that these activities will generate laughs, creativity, and build lasting memories for your family and other loved ones.
Happy holidays to all from the team at NannyTax!
And remember, the holidays shouldn’t create extra stress for you in your household. If you need help going into the new year with payroll services for your nanny or caregiver, please reach out to us at NannyTax.ca and get your first month free!
