Ideas for Family Holidays and Celebrations

Band-Aids! Huge hit with toddler and preschool age, come in all different character designs, and are actually useful.

My teen loves the occasional Arizona iced tea, and it's a great cheap stocking stuffer. The can is also giant, so it takes up lots of room in a stocking.

Aquaphor lip balm.

A rolled-up magazine.

For smaller gifts, I'll usually hide them somewhere in my room that I know they are unlikely to look, like hidden by stuff in my closet, drawer or cabinet. For bigger gifts, I try to keep them at grandma and grandpa's house until the last possible moment. Sometimes, I'll just leave things in their Amazon boxes and let them blend in with the pile of "stuff to get to" in our garage!

I try to keep everything in one or two spots, because the more I spread things out, the more likely I am to forget where I hid things! My favorite place is inside suitcases.

If you shop on Amazon, add the things you plan to purchase to a shopping list as early as you can. Then keep an eye on the list to watch for prices to drop. Order things as they go on sale.

Discuss cutting back on gift giving with extended family - you might be surprised how welcome this idea is. Maybe you'll all just do gifts for the kids and skip the adults, or draw names and just buy for one family member.

If you want to bring your family to see The Nutcracker, ask around to see if there's an excellent local one put on by a ballet school. We have a fabulous one near us that we have seen multiple times, and they hire professional dancers for certain roles. Tickets are cheaper, and we don't have to drive downtown.

I like to keep a list of the things I buy for my family. It makes me more intentional about purchases, and helps avoid the last minute impulse buys to make sure I have "enough" or "equal" gifts for everyone.

The holidays are a wonderful time to volunteer as a family. Not only is it a perfect expression of the meaning behind the season, but there are also so many more opportunities to volunteer as a family than at other times during the year, such as buying, wrapping or delivering gifts to those in need, serving holiday meals, or helping out or performing at nursing home holiday parties.

My kids probably most look forward to our Advent Calendar. For a long time, I had a reusable one that I just filled with little chocolates, and that by itself was fun. Then a few years ago I experimented with creating a DIY "punch board" advent calendar, gluing 24 disposable cups onto a big piece of cardboard, filling each with a little candy, snack or other small gift, and then covering it with gift tissue paper secured by a rubber band. It has been THE biggest hit!! My kids wake up early just to go punch their advent calendar all season long :)

Baking and decorating cookies! I love to make Christmas cookies by myself or with my kids throughout the season, but when we gather with extended family members we also make it a point to set out a decorating station for anyone to frost and design pre-baked sugar cookies. Often, there is a bit of a competition involved in who can make the "best" decorated cookie.

Watch Christmas movies. There are so many good ones, we will usually try to watch a few throughout the season. Our family loves Curious George, so even as the kids have gotten older, A Very Monkey Christmas is always on our watch list. Then it just depends on what we're in the mood for. Once my teens were old enough to appreciate it, It's a Wonderful Life is usually on there as well.

What did the turkey say to the turkey hunter? Quack quack quack.

What do you get when you drop a pumpkin? Squash.

What do you get when you cross an octopus with a turkey? Finally enough drumsticks for everyone at Thanksgiving!

What side of the turkey has the most feathers? The outside.

Customization stations like make-your-own pizza or a top-your-own ice cream sundae bar.

Inflatables are always a hit, though renting one can be pricy. We've done the giant slides in the past, and they are tons of fun for kids and adults!

I love the idea of an outdoor movie night. Project a movie on a screen outside, lounge around on sleeping bags and pillows, and pass around the snacks!

We did a Minute to Win It game tournament when my son turned 8, and the boys loved it. Stacking pennies, balloon bounce, toilet paper mummies, stacking solo cups, etc.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we break out our poster paints and paint a big tree, minus the leaves, on big sheets of paper. We also cut out large leaves using colorful construction paper and put the tree up in a prominent area with a big pile of paper leaves nearby. Throughout Thanksgiving, we each write down things that we’re grateful for on a leaf to add to the tree (and invite any guests to do the same) - it’s such a fun and visual way to see and recall the many things we have to be thankful for!

Set out a big jigsaw puzzle, and people can work on it as they please throughout the day. I love low-key family Thanksgiving activities like this that encourage people to sit together and chat, and it works well for a wide range of ages. Puzzles with a harvest or holiday theme are a fun choice.

With a white tablecloth or runner on your table, have everyone present for the Thanksgiving dinner write something they are thankful for in Sharpie or fabric marker and sign their name. Carefully launder the tablecloth, and you can bring it out again each year to repeat as an annual Thanksgiving activity and enjoy looking back on past years!

For preschoolers and toddlers, have a mini pumpkin "egg" hunt! Buy a dozen of those adorable mini pumpkins and hide them throughout your home for a fun thing to do on Thanksgiving. Kids can also take turns hiding them for each other. Later, use the pumpkins as dinner table décor!

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? Because he didn't have any guts.

What's the scariest pasta to eat? Fettuccine "afraid-o"

Why do vampires have no friends? Because they are a pain in the neck.

Why don't mummies take vacations? They're afraid to unwind.

A murder mystery dinner is a fun thing for teens to do for Halloween with friends. You can use a kit that sets it all up for you, and everyone can dress in costume that matches the time period or setting of the game.

Teens can do an escape room for Halloween. Many have spooky themes that are perfect for the holiday.

Halloween movie marathon! Teens might be excited to "graduate" to scary movies from the spooky little kid ones they grew up with.

Read scary books or spooky mysteries in the month of October to get in the Halloween spirit. My teen is reading a few Neil Gaiman books this year.

Rosie the Riveter with jeans, blue button up shirt with sleeves rolled up, red bandana around the head, red lipstick.

Wednesday Addams. Wear a black dress/skirt with a white collared shirt. If you can, put on a black long sleeve shirt over the collared shirt, and add white knee socks, black shoes, dark makeup, and braid your hair for the finishing touch!

My husband dressed up as a picnic table one year at last minute, to match our son's ant costume. He cut out a big rectangle from a cardboard box, and hot glued some of the kids' toy food onto it, including a tablecloth and toy dishes. Then he hung it around his neck using some yarn, and voila! A picnic table. It was done in less than 30 minutes, and he got so many compliments!

A black cat is pretty easy to throw together using stuff you already have at home. Just wear all black, and draw whiskers and a nose on your face with eye liner. Add kitty ears using black triangles cut out of construction paper (tape them on a headband or pin them on with bobby pins), and if possible, find something to use as a tail, like a black belt, tie or sash.

If your kids love making paper chain countdowns for events they're anticipating and ripping off a link each day, make a black and orange one for Halloween!

Find a local pumpkin patch or corn maze to explore as a family. Many really go all out with fun Halloween activities for kids.

In our last neighborhood, one of our neighbors had a casual Halloween party every year. On Halloween before trick-or-treating, the neighbors would all hang out in their driveway for dinner and to check out everyone's costumes. It was always one of my favorite parts of the holiday!

Hide candy or little Halloween trinkets inside Easter eggs for a Halloween egg hunt.