- Sing Jingle Bells to each other
- Feed each other Christmas goodies such as mini Yule Logs or chocolate coins
- Create a Santa’s beard on each other using washing up liquid foam or foamy soap
- Practice your reindeer galloping around the room, put Rudolph noses on first using lotion (noses will glow in reaction to the cold lotion!)
- Have a snowball fight with cotton wool balls or newspaper balls
- Play beep and honk but use Christmassy sounds – turkey, sleigh bell, thud as Santa come down the chimney ….
- Make a set of family reindeer prints by drawing round a foot for the reindeer face and round hands for the antlers
- As a family make or buy a present for someone who wouldn’t otherwise have one
- Play fish and chips but use Ho,Ho,Ho and Merry Christmas
- Pull a pretend Christmas cracker – it will be really HUGE and you will have to do a lot of pulling this way and that way before it goes bang
- Give each other a hand massage with lotion
- Do a Christmas themed ‘spot the difference’ i.e. both look away, add some Christmas decoration to yourself when you turn back to each other spot what has changed
- Bean bag drops – but use Christmas items e.g. a carrot for Rudolph, a snowflake (make it out of whatever you have to hand)
- Repeat the worst Christmas cracker joke you have ever heard
- Wrap someone up like a Christmas present (with a blanket or sheet) and have fun unwrapping them
- Be Santa and his sleigh – someone is Rudolph and is on their hands and knees, someone is Santa, takes the back legs of Rudolph and wheelbarrow around the room
- Tell the Christmas story on someone’s back (like weather report)
- How many bites can you take out of a …. (mince pie, marshmallow, carrot, mini yule log)
- Make someone in the family into a ‘pigs in blankets’ by rolling them in a blanket and pressing firmly but gently on them
- Do a Christmas themed Simon Says activity
- Build a family hand stack Christmas tree – how high can you go?
- Sing a Christmas song with actions and mirror each other e.g. When Santa got Stuck Up the Chimney
- Shake powder or flour onto each other’s hands – does the pattern look like a snow flake?
- Leave a snack and a drink out for Santa and a note to say what activity you’d like to do with him
- Sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas” to each other.
Credit: Mary Kennedy, Tory Kerneen and Fiona Peacock November 2020 https://www.wp.theraplay.org/uk/
Just to explain few activities in more detail. These activities can be found in the book ‘Parenting the Theraplay Way by Viv Norris and Helen Rodwell.
No 9 Fish and chips
Adult says ‘Fish’ and the child says ‘chips’ in the same way. Repeat with loudness and intonation and words can be adapted to ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ and the response “Merry Christmas”.
No 17 Weather report
Describe the weather and rub your child’s back or hand to match the weather . For example, “it’s a warm sunny day” could make a large circle. Other weather could include rain, wind etc.
No 20 Simon says
The child has to listen to adults’ commands and only respond to the ones with “Simon says in”. This could also be changed to “Mum” or “Dad” says.
