So, with this post, I’ll share a few low cost ideas that have added fun and flair to our holiday festivities… and most importantly, have taken the emphasis away from gifts:
*Serving meals at a homeless shelter
*Making holiday cards, and bringing them to a nursing home. Visiting with the residents.
*Making fleece scarves and donating them to the homeless shelter
*Taking a walk in a park
*I have a bag under the tree. Once the tree goes up, you add stories about the past year, or about something special about someone in the family. Once Hanukkah and Christmas come, we start pulling the stories from the bag, and instead of opening presents, we read the stories out loud. We laugh, share and remember.
*Similar to the bag idea, I have made a mini book for each family member…the books sit out on the coffee table, and in it, you add special things about that person. I’ve also used these mini books as name cards for large family dinners. After dinner, we pass the books around the table, and everyone writes something in each. It’s fun, and the books have always been treasured. My in-laws added a ribbon to their books, and hung them from their Christmas tree as an ornament.
We of course don’t do everything every year…but we always try to do something in the community, and something in the home…it helps bring the focus back to the importance of family and taking care of our community.
Filed under: Creative Blendergy, Livin' Life, Stepisodes | Tagged: Children, Family, Holidays, Money
