3 Small Ways to Have a More Thoughtful Holiday Gathering
Perhaps you’ve been in my shoes. Maybe you’ve mentioned to family members that you use the resources at Doing Good Together to teach your kids about kindness and community. Maybe you’ve been discussing how thoughtful it was when your child spontaneously delivered homemade Halloween decorations to a neighbor that had none or decided to host a sandwich-making party for the homeless.
And maybe you have seen what I have when the presents came out just a few minutes later.
The crazed eyes, the frenzied unwrapping, that furtive glances around to double check… more? My children can and have become holiday beasts. I have blamed lack of sleep, higher than usual sugar consumption, and a full month of near-constant holiday celebrations with our many relatives, but nothing cushions the blow of watching my own kids turn into animals during a holiday party.
This is especially difficult when I so badly want my family to experience what I have with them. The joy of thoughtful conversation; the calming impact a good deed has on their super-charged, child-sized spirits; and even the physical, often messy act of making something tangible and good together are all gifts that doing good gives our family year round.
With the biggest celebrations just a few days away, I’ve put together three simple ways we can add a bit of service to our weekend, adding a bit of intentional and thoughtful conversation to our festivities and possibly calming the holiday beast within.
1. Story Time
Nothing helps re-center a child like a good story. Choose something from this month’s newsletter to have on hand, or any of your favorite Kinder Book Club books. Make a point of having story time together, and encourage visitors to particpate. Be sure to take time for a discussion about the challenges and heroics in your featured book.
2. Card Games
Homemade cards are a wonderful way to spread holiday cheer and fun for all ages to create together. Set up a New Year’s card-making station and donate all that you accomplish to a nearby nursing home, shelter, or even relatives who couldn’t attend your holiday party. We’ll be taking ours to a local nursing home with the hope that we’ll make several family visits to the folks there throughout 2012.
Set up a card-making table full of your favorite card-making supplies. Choose a goal for how many you’d like to have completed by the end of the party. Offer prompts or even print-outs of suggested messages of hope and kindness. Consider tracking down an inspiration quote from this list or offer up a simple New Year’s greeting that can apply to any circumstance.
We’ll be posting a few good reflection questions at our card station too:
- How do you think it would feel to live in a nursing home?
- What do you think it will be like to visit a nursing home? What are some things we could talk about with the residents?
- Do you think they’ll like receiving New Year’s greetings? How do you feel when you get mail?
- What are the New Year’s traditions in your family?
- What acts of kindness do you hope to do in the New Year?
Visit www.talkaboutgiving.org for wonderful conversation starters that can get the whole family talking about generosity, kindness, and philanthropy. Take a lo
ok at their online resources and consider bringing one of their questions of the week to your holiday dinner table.
- If we were to live on less money, what could we live without?
- Think back to the gifts you got on your last birthday? Which ones do you still like and use?
Even better, order your own Talk About Giving game full of questions and prompts that can start a thoughtful conversation anywhere. We keep our copy in the kitchen, a handy accompaniment to family dinner. I put Miss First-Grader on the task of choosing a few good ones to grace the table Christmas day.
Tags: Holidays
