Hi All,
Missing you all very much, but want you to have a great Christmas!
In light of that, one of the games I greatly enjoy playing with the younger kids (K-3rd grade) is called the “Holiday Game.” It is a play~acting game that I play near the holidays to help keep kids excited for the holidays, as well as introducing kids to other fun family traditions. Therefore, I model the game after the Kemp family traditions (some from when I was a kid!).
Here goes. I have 10 things we do around the holidays that all have actions and sounds. Please feel free, of course, to add your own.
MAKING SNOW ANGELS (laying on the ground, moving arms and legs making swishing sounds)
SLEDDING (sitting on the ground making fast air sounds rocking back and forth & then crashing or falling off the sled ~which my kids loved to do at the end of the slide!)
SNOWBALL FIGHT (not PC I know😃) (pretend to throw snow ~ get hit and fall down playfully grumbling)
TRIMMING THE TREE (putting up the ornaments and lights, then standing back & admiring the tree with “Oos” & “Ahs”!)
WARMING UP BY THE FIRE & DRINKING HOT COCOA OR TEA (warming your hands to the fire and sipping the hot cocoa with a saucer & a pinkie out!)
MAKING & EATING CHRISTMAS COOKIES (roll out the dough, stamp out the cookies, put them in the oven, smell that good Christmas cookie smell, eat the cookies~ both hands shoveling them in, then lying on the ground rubbing your stomach moaning and groaning because you had too many cookies!)
SINGING CAROLS (leader leads songs, moving hands like a conductor, singing one line of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silent Night, Jingle Bells!)
OPENING PACKAGES ON CHRISTMAS MORNING (kneeling on the ground tearing packages open with both hands then squealing in delight over the gifts!)
WASH THE DISHES BY HAND (I was the dishwasher way back when, before dishwashers😃)(kneeling on the ground rubbing your hands in circular fashion pretending to have a plate in between making wet water swishing sounds)
STOP, DROP & PRAY (drop to your knees, put hands together in prayer fashion~ thanking the Lord for a good day, then putting your hand together in rocking fashion, thanking Him for the baby Jesus around Christmas time, then putting both hands on the side of your face like next to a pillow say “Nighty Night! and then do some good snoring!)
You will need a space where you can do all the above traditions and where you can move freely. You will also need someone to guide things (and of course to play along ~ kids love it when parents and older siblings get silly with them and play act with them!😃).
To begin, one older child or adult demonstrates & names all the actions & sounds of each tradition above in a certain part of the room (You can use the 4 corners of the room for 4 traditions, then the middle between each corner for another 4, then the very middle for WASH THE DISHES BY HAND and then anywhere for STOP, DROP & PRAY). Ask the kids to just watch at first and try and remember as much as they can.
After you’ve done this then have everyone get up and start doing the traditions. The leader will call out directions and prompt where and what if needed.
Go around and do all the traditions once, but not in the same order as first demonstrated, sprinkling in STOP, DROP & PRAY & WASH THE DISHES BY HAND for fun at random.
In my set of traditions, I build one upon another at times. For example I will have them start with snow angels and then go to sledding, then to snowball fight, then hear your mom calling to stop the snow balling and come inside near the fire (or heater) and get warm & have hot cocoa, then what goes with hot cocoa? Xmas cookies! Then what do you have to do after making cookies? The dishes! Then you want to stop drop & pray, and so on.
To keep the game exciting, each tradition should only last 10-15 seconds, and play for just 10-15 minutes total with 2 or 3 rounds of traditions; then, on the second and third go around of the traditions, do them faster & faster! If you’d like to play the game longer consider replacing the Kemp traditions with your own, as I mentioned earlier, or others that you know of (ie. snowboarding, skiing, ice skating, driving to grandma’s, setting the table, cooking the ham or turkey) or other traditions from around the world.
I hope you all have a Happy, Holy, Warm Holidays & Merry Christmas!🎄🎉
Blessings! Happy Birthday Jesus!
Coach & Debbie
