Stockings full of goodies and gifts under the tree are lovely, but they cannot compare with time spent with loved ones.
Want to liven up your Christmas festivities with some new traditions?
Has the traditional Christmas family get together gotten boring? Do the kids really appreciate their presents?
During a past Christmas gathering, all of my family, including children with ages ranging from three to 10 years old, opened up their presents. Within an hour, we noticed the kids had put their gifts down and gone back to watching videos, playing on their phones or tablets, and not interacting with each other. Appreciation was seemingly gone. It seemed like a great time to implement a Christmas raid, Grinch style.
It has been said no one appreciates what they have until it's gone, so I snuck around and hid all of the kids' presents. They didn't even notice until they were about to leave, and then panic set in. That’s when their appreciation was expressed - they all really wanted their presents back from Uncle Joel.
The next year, we put a new plan of action in place. All adults were asked to give their best performance in a Christmas robbery.
After the children opened up their presents and were done playing with them, we gave them pool noodles and cap pistols and cowboy hats to ward off the bandits who were ready to steal their presents. A five-year-old stood in front of his cousins and said with a lisp, “Don't worry cousins, I will protect you from them wobbers!” Uncles and aunts wearing bandanas and cowboy hats descended, tryiing to steal their Christmas, to no avail.
When the kids shot their cap pistols at them, the would-be robbers acted like they got hit with cannonballs. If a robber was hit with a pool noodle, it was as if they’d been hit with a tree. The kids laughed so hard when they saw their defensive actions working to repel the bandits, and they were able to keep their presents. There is something about the laughter of young children that is so healing and contagious. This became the highlight of our family’s Christmas.
The third year the kids were looking forward to the battle as much as they were the opening of gifts. That year, a band of pirates tried to raid Christmas. The fourth year a group of Vikings attempted, but the kids' efforts repelled them each time.
I miss hearing those kids laughing at the acting job of the adults getting shot or knocked down and begging for their mercy. That was so much more special than any gift they opened. The kids truly appreciated their family playing with them.
I encourage you to try to liven up your Christmas, maybe even disconnect the phones and tablets. Nothing is more disappointing than to see family members that traveled long distances, just to sit around the house ignoring each other, caught up instead in their own cyber worlds.
I encourage more families to play board games, or better yet nurture the problem solving skills in children by helping them assemble Legos, or build model boats or airplanes together. Who knows, you may be inspiring future STEM leaders by getting them excited to fix and build things together.
Those fun-loving past Christmas raids between the adults and the kids are cherished memories for me, as many of those kids are now in college and several of the adults have died. It’s the reason I say give your presence out at Christmas, and not just presents.
Merry Christmas, and thank you all for continuing to read Davidson Local.
