Children

Children and parents grappling with the Christmas holidays: the watchword is to play together

There are just a few weeks left until Christmas arrives and in a few days all the cities will begin to see decorations, lights and lots of Santa Claus.

Everyone has their own traditions and beliefs, but if you celebrate it, you can also involve children not only to write a letter to Santa Claus, but to create small decorations, do-it-yourself gifts for relatives and friends and also save a while having fun and experimenting with their children.

Children like the atmosphere of Christmas a lot because the house, the city, the nursery, the kindergarten and so on are filled with colors and a thousand lights, many gifts arrive and finally even the holidays to make the Christmas even more pleasant. festive atmosphere.

A small idea to start counting down to Christmas day is to build an advent calendar with the children.

On the internet you can find many versions both simple and laborious to create one at home. A simple proposal suitable for all children, both very young and older, is to use simple A4 sheets (even divided in half if you want to make them smaller) and in the color you want. Then, depending on the age of the children, they have small scribbles made using their fingers, with tempera mixed with glitter, footprints or a nice Christmas drawing for children who already have the dexterity to use colors and brushes.

For the older ones, Christmas writing can be added and once the sheets are colored they roll up to form cones, closing them with the stapler that can be attached to a Bristol board. Above each one you can write the numbers or make small holes in the cones and pass a thread of drool or string recovered at home and hang at child’s height. Inside each cone you can put a small biscuit prepared together with your children, a chocolate, some small toy (for example a toy car or an animal, no more than 3 or 4 in the whole calendar) or whatever you want the your children will find it amusing, pleasant and perhaps greedy when they fish in the cone in the morning or in the evening.

Another activity that children really like is preparing salt dough , very simple and cheap to prepare, because it only requires water, flour and salt. The table and the floor will get a little dirty but you will have spent a few pleasant hours with your children and they will have had a lot of fun. After preparing the dough you can give it the shape you prefer, you can simply use small glasses to make rounds and whatever comes to your mind to make a shape, if you have dessert molds you can use them. I recommend remembering to punch a small hole in the top of your cutter so you can stick them around the house or on the Christmas tree.  You will have to wait for the molds to dry and for this reason it is better to put them in the oven to speed up the times and the next day they will be ready to be colored with tempera, or leave them natural with the addition of vinavil, glitter and much more.

These are just two examples of everything you can do with your children while waiting for Christmas, and not only to entertain them but to spend more time with them in an educational and fun way. As you do manual activities with the children you will see that they will be more inclined to dialogue, to tell, to talk and it is therefore a good opportunity for conversation .

There will be a lot of satisfaction both on your part and on the part of the children of being able to decorate the house with your decorations made together. This will contribute to making the Christmas holiday period more lively and interesting, which is not just a time for shopping, sometimes a bit imposed, but for joy and family warmth.

Let’s not forget Santa’s little letter , also very important for children who still believe in this little man dressed in red with a long white beard. Dictating a small list of games they want so much is very exciting and even more so for children who have just started writing and will be able to write it by themselves. Obviously you will be the one to specify that Santa Claus will only be able to bring some games and not all those listed, but also let them dream a little and you never know that Santa Claus will be able to fulfill all their wishes, perhaps with the help of their grandparents or of other relatives.

My advice is to leave the letter on the Christmas tree and it will be fun to see them run in the morning to check if Santa has come to get it. If you take your children to the Christmas markets or shopping centres, you will find letterboxes, someone who will collect the letter and deliver it to the little man dressed in red and let him make another one if they feel like it, but make the one in the tree always, because it will be nice, when they grow up, to show them the letters they wrote to Santa Claus when they were little. Maybe for a few minutes they will start dreaming again.

Dr Kathryn Barlow

Kathryn Barlow is an OB/GYN doctor, which is the medical specialty that deals with the care of women's reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth.

Obstetricians provide care to women during pregnancy, labor, and delivery, while gynecologists focus on the health of the female reproductive system, including the ovaries, uterus, vagina, and breasts. OB/GYN doctors are trained to provide medical and surgical care for a wide range of conditions related to women's reproductive health.

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