Looking for more ways to make the holiday season more meaningful?
• Befriend an elderly person at a nursing home and create a comfort care package with tissues, sox, stuffed animal, potpourri, etc.
• Visit a local children’s hospital and take balloons, gifts, or other goodwill cheer to the patients.
• Donate time and resources to a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or food bank.
• Give staples to an animal shelter. Call and ask what they need first.
• Write a note of appreciation to someone who has helped you or your family this year.
• Give the gift of experience. Wrap up an i.o.u. or tickets to a live theater presentation, aquarium, zoo, or other venue, along with the date you plan go in the next few months.
• Make homemade gifts that cost little or nothing for family, friends, and pets.
• Create homemade ornaments using everyday household materials.
• Create a coupon book with certificates that can be redeemed at a later time — help with housework, an hour of quality time, etc.
• Discuss the meanings and symbols of the holiday season.
• Create a flag that represents what the holidays mean to you and your family.
• Interview grandparents about what Christmas was like when they were a child. Video record the session and make it a keepsake.
• Create your own family version of “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas” or write your own holiday poem.
• Have a pajama holiday where everyone gets a new pair and stays in their pjs all day.
• Teach a new skill to someone, such as computers for the elderly or knitting for a child.
• Spend one-on-one time with each child creating a special holiday tradition.
• Create a time capsule to represent events that have happened throughout the year. Seal and bury it for 20 or more years.
• Create an annual paper quilt that links 12 pieces (3-by-4) of construction paper with scenes depicting each month of the year. Punch holes around the sides that connect and sew it together with yarn.
• Invent a new holiday recipe.
• Donate new children’s coats to an organization such as Operation Warm (www.operationwarm.org).
• Read one holiday classic (or a chapter of one) every night leading up to Christmas.
• Have a family Christmas program where each person presents a song, poem, reading or artistic presentation. Video record and view in years to come.
