Making Christmas Magical For Children

Christmas is a magical time for adults and children.  For children, it is particularly magical because their imagination is so active visualising Santa and his reindeer ripping through the winter night sky with a sleigh full of wonderful presents for children all over the world.  As children get older and they no longer believe in Santa, some of the magic of Christmas seems to go.  The years will pass so quickly so make sure that you get the very best out of this time for your children, and lets face it, for ourselves!  Read on for some tips on making the best of this time of magic for children.

Magic Reindeer Food
This is simple and really captures your child’s imagination. Try to get some stars or glitter – most supermarkets stock these. You will then need a dry mix that the birds will eat – porridge oats, crushed plain biscuits, crushed cereal etc. Mix a handful of the dry mix with a handful of stars or glitter. Tie up in a Christmas napkin or some Christmas paper so that it looks like a little sack. You can then give it to your children and they must keep it until bedtime on Christmas eve. Before they go to bed, they should sprinkle the magic reindeer food in the garden or somewhere outside your home. Because the reindeer will be so delighted with the food, Santa will leave an extra little treat!


Make Some Decorations
If you child is in playschool or primary school, they will probably make some decorations there but they can still make some at home. Forget about the tree being a ‘designer’ tree or following a particular colour scheme, encourage your children to make a decoration for it every year and hang these on the tree each year. Children love to get involved and how better than for them to display the decoration they made on the Christmas tree for all to see. Materials for making decorations can be found around your house (empty toilet tissue rolls make a great Santa body!). You can also pick up many materials in your local supermarket, bookshop or hobby shop. Good luck and happy hobbying....


Christmas Pudding & The Magic Wish
Make your own Christmas pudding. It isn’t too difficult and can be a lot of fun. Give each of the children a job suitable for their age (e.g. grating the orange rind, cutting the cherries, holding the sieve etc. When the pudding has all the ingredients added, each member of the family stirs three times in a clockwork direction and makes a wish. When the pudding is boiling, the smell brings such a lovely atmosphere to your home and the wish is sent to the fairies with the steam. There are recipes for Christmas pudding available on the internet – search for “Christmas pudding recipe” and choose the one you like best.

Leave Food For Santa on Christmas Eve
Before the children go to bed, they can make up a snack for Santa and leave it beside the tree or the chimney place. This can be a glass of milk and some biscuits for Santa and maybe one or two carrots for the reindeer. The important thing for you to remember is to make sure that the food is gone and only some crumbs left before the children get up on Christmas morning.


Leave Evidence That Santa Was Here
What better to stimulate your child’s imagination that to leave some type of evidence that the big man was in your house on Christmas eve! This could be done by sprinkling some fake snow around the Christmas tree or fireplace, putting a large footprint or two near the tree, leaving a Santa hat behind or something similar. The excitement for your child to see the clues will be worth the effort!


“Santa’s Watching”
We all love how we can get our children to behave really well for Santa. You can tell the children that the birds are Santa’s helpers and they watch for children being good or bad and report back to Santa. Give them a way to gain back favour if they were seen by the bird being bad! They can always make up for the “bad mark” by doing something good or kind.  They can also show how good they are by helping to get the jobs done around the house for Christmas.  Use lots of imagination to help and encourage your children to be good and feel that they are 'earning' lots of brownie points for Christmas!