Christmas is all about traditions. With the unpleasant characteristic of becoming a little more boring from year to year. But this can be countered without destroying the family "spirit of Christmas". On the following lines, we have collected a few ideas that are particularly suitable for families.
1. dice throwing
In most households, there is only one variable when it comes to gift-giving: whether it takes place before or after the meal. If everyone pounces on the presents at the same time, the fun you've been working towards for so many weeks is over after half an hour at the latest.
So why not spice things up a little? All you need is one or two dice and a variation on the classic dice roll. Each family member is assigned a number; if there are more than six guests, two dice numbers are added together. The dice are then rolled in turn and there are two variants for the result:
- In the quick version, everyone can get a gift as soon as their number is rolled, regardless of who rolls it.
- In the longer version, you can only get it if you roll your own number.
You can spice things up further by handing out mini-gifts for unused numbers, and a small drink can also be served at adult-only gift tables.
2nd Christmas barbecue
It's always the same: Either a family member spends half of Christmas Eve in the kitchen preparing a luxury meal, or you get bored with the Germans' favorite Christmas Day meal, sausages with potato salad. But if the living room is only adjoined by a balcony, let alone a terrace, you can also turn it into a winter outdoor version, the Christmas barbecue. What you need is quickly listed:
- Lots of heat (radiant heater, fire basket or similar)
- Thick cushions and blankets for all guests
- Mulled wine or alternatively a stiff grog
- Suitable patio decorations: if it's not a white Christmas, baking snow can also fall and in any case, lanterns should be lit
- Paper plates: porcelain gets so cold in winter that steak and co. cool down on them within minutes
Then it's time to barbecue like it's summer. However, please be a little quieter, because the neighbors have earned their Christmas peace.
3. friendship party
We usually only celebrate Christmas with family members. But why is that? After all, it's primarily about charity, which is already present in the family through relatives, but you can't always choose them.
However, friends are always chosen voluntarily and sometimes even better. Although you need several people to be willing to do something new, you can turn Christmas into a celebration of friendship instead of the classic family celebration. Especially if this includes people who have no family to sit around the table with on this day.
4. play festival 24/7
Our Christmas celebrations have become much more liberal. Older readers may remember that the living room was locked at least on Christmas Eve. With a bit of bad luck, every member of the family would sit in their room until the presents started.
But families can actually do things quite differently. By turning the whole of Christmas Eve into a celebration. It can start first thing in the morning by reading each other unconventional, funny Christmas stories in bed. It continues with
- Video games in which everyone takes part.
- classic board or puzzle games.
- Christmas time cartoons.
- a visit to the playground together.
The idea behind this is not just to entertain the children, but to really make it something for the whole family that doesn't start at five or six in the evening, but on the 24th in the morning.
5. global Christmas
Most of us are very open-minded people. But at the holidays, the typical "German Christmas" dominates. If someone brings up the topic of a foreign Christmas, most people immediately think of celebrating under palm trees and wave it off with disinterest.
Yet a cosmopolitan Christmas can also be celebrated here in Germany. Without even having to set foot outside the door. After all, Christmas is celebrated all over the world, but the regional traditions are sometimes very different from what we are used to:
- In Japan, the low number of Christians means that Christmas is more important than Valentine's Day here in Germany. And: the Japanese love to eat fast food on Christmas Eve.
- The Italians don't compete for the most beautifully decorated Christmas tree, but for the most beautiful nativity scene.
- In Russia, Christmas is not celebrated until January 6/7, but people there deliberately eat very poorly, especially on Christmas Eve, and then indulge all the more opulently the next day.
If you like the idea, you can interpret this international celebration much more broadly and perhaps adopt the tradition of a different country every year. It certainly won't be boring and it helps to promote cosmopolitanism and international understanding anyway.