Christmas is a time when loved ones come together, and you're reunited with extended family members you might not have seen since last year. If you're an aunt with a bunch of little nieces and nephews, Christmas might be the one time of year when you have them all together in one place. You want to make your time with them truly special, so here are some of the best holiday plans for the cool aunt to make with her favorite kids.
The kids know that they have family obligations with their parents, but when they hang out with you, they know that they're in for a real treat. (Let's be honest: You're probably the aunt who lets the kids sneak some pumpkin pie before dinner is served, and you always hook them up with the best presents ever.) They love you endlessly, and want to spend as much time as possible with you this holiday season, so you'll need some fun activities planned to keep them occupied.
From gingerbread house making and Christmas tree decorating, to tacky Christmas pajama sleepovers and festive movie marathons, here is everything you should do with your nieces and nephews this season. Happy holidays!
Few things scream Christmas more than a gingerbread house. Making a gingerbread house with the kiddos will help them feel like they're contributing to the Christmas spread, and of course, it's a yummy treat to enjoy after the decorating is all done.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, bake the gingerbread from scratch. Otherwise, you and your nieces and nephews can just take on the decorating part with icing and gumdrops and candy canes, oh my!
You don't have to go too far to make this a fun trip for the kiddos. Take them to the next town over, or out to a different part of your town that they don't get to explore too often. You can go Christmas ornament shopping, grab some hot chocolate, and enjoy some much-needed quality time with your nieces and nephews.
Bundle up, because it's time to hit the ice. When you think of fun winter activities, ice skating is usually one of the first things that comes to mind. Pretty much every town has an ice skating rink or two, so you and the kids will be sure to have a great time with many laughs.
A toasty cup of hot cocoa is one of the best things to get you, your nieces, and nephews in the holiday spirit. Have them put their (literal) fancy pants on, and take them to a cute dessert bar to enjoy a more *refined* cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows and whipped cream. You can each get different flavors and share, and mix and match them with your holiday desserts.
This is an extremely sweet (and delicious) plan for the little ones to enjoy. Make the s'mores Christmas-themed by sprinkling crushed-up candy canes in the middle, or by setting up an icing station and ornamenting the graham crackers with little Santa hats before you stack them up.
Instead of your adults-only ugly sweater party, you, your nieces, and nephews can all get into your coziest Christmas PJs and have a sleepover. You can watch a movie or two, bake Christmas cookies for Santa, and watch the snow fall outside. (If you don't get snow where you are, maybe get some of that fake snow that you and the kiddos can make together.)
Host a winter field day for all of your nieces and nephews. Have them compete in anything from snow tubing to snowman building, and at the end of the day, everyone will win with a cup of hot cocoa. It'll be a great way to get all of them active before they enjoy a huge Christmas feast, and the bragging rights will stick with them until next year's field day.
The big tree that each of their families have at home is nice and all, but the kids probably want to decorate a tree of their own. Get a small tree that can be just for the kids. They can decorate it with anything their hearts desire — no rules. If they want popcorn string and tinsel and ribbon all wrapped around the tree, that's OK, too.
There's no shortage of Christmas movies to watch during the season, so block out a day when all of you can watch your favorites together. From Elf to Home Alone to A Charlie Brown Christmas, you can pull out every classic holiday movie for the kids to enjoy.
If you and the kids aren't up for Christmas caroling this year, you can host a karaoke sing-along for the fam instead. Pull up a few karaoke tracks on YouTube, and get ready to belt out "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (and laugh when your funny uncle attempts to hit the high notes).
