Creative World Parent Tips: Remembering How to Have Fun this Holiday Season

The holidays are the time of year known as both the most festive and the most stressful. At times it feels like the best and worst time to be a parent.  It's a time of year we all need help remembering the reason for the season while facing the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, cold weather and visiting relatives. In essence, this is the time to be together. To be thankful and celebrating tradition. So this season, we've included some tips to help reduce holiday stress and enjoy the time you have with your children and the rest of your family: 

1. Resist Overscheduling - Allowing rest time is one of the most important holiday parenting tips. As parents, we want to give our kids the best holiday experiences possible year after year. But resist the temptation to overbook yourselves. You'll find that multiple items on the calendar per day add up to tired children and parents. Allow time for reading, board games, hot cocoa and naps throughout the holidays. You'll thank yourself.
2. Embrace Tradition - One of the most fulfilling aspects of the holidays can be recognizing and practicing holiday traditions. Your family's connection to the past can be explored through stories of family heirlooms you bring out during this time or can be as simple as making cookies like you did with your grandparents. Your children want to be included in the holiday season, and it can also be exciting to create new traditions. Weaving new traditions is a great way for kids to feel connected to the idea of tradition and what it means to celebrate a special way every season.
3. Maintain Routines - Sweets and late nights are abound during the holidays, yet maintaining your routines help ensure that everyone gets enough sleep and rules are still respected. Routines are a part of your child's development and keeping a schedule can help calm all those involved. 
4. Empower them to Give - A powerful message during the holiday season is the message to give to others. Children learn by repeating what they observe in their environment and internalize the lessons when they participate. The holiday season is a time with ample opportunities to give to others and to encourage your child to take an active role in making someone else's holiday season a great one. Do it together and they learn two-fold: that you value the activity and they learn socially responsible habits by doing. 
5. Play with them and Have Fun! - A great de-stresser can be to step away from the holiday wrapping bonanza and play with your kids. They will always remind you of the spirit of the season, if you allow that space. Go sledding, build a snowman and dance to holiday music, because you need it as much as they do. 

From all of us here at Creative World Children's Academy, we wish you a joyous holiday season!