EVERY December, we have multiple get togethers with friends. From grade school, high school, college and postcollege, the lists goes on. And when you’re a parent, this list gets doubled.
For me, I love home gatherings and “potlucks”. Each family or guest brings a dish. We get to try new food finds. Everything is casual. No fancy preparations. If the host prefers disposable plates and utensils, that’s fine. We spend more time for catching up, and the kids enjoy more time playing.
It would be great if you can share your home-cooked specialty dish in these gatherings. But if you are busy and have no time, below are some hearty suggestions from me and my friends, of places you can order for great food to bring to potlucks (see table).
Since the preparation of food has been delegated to friends, there’s some time left to prepare for simple party games. We started doing this with my friends because we noticed that, while the adults were busy chatting through memory lane, the kids were just left watching videos or playing on their tablets.
We felt it was also good to have activities where our kids can also bond and, hopefully, develop friendships like ours. Today, my kids look forward to meeting our friends’ kids, and they actually help me think of activities to do.
This Sunday we will be hosting a get together with my college friends. Below are some games and activities we have planned out:
- Parents vs kids trivia game. We won’t use it as a board game but we will have a simple question-and-answer based on board games, like Trivia Pursuit Family Edition and Beat the Parents. There will be two teams: one all parents, one all kids. Each team takes turns to answer. Whoever reaches 10 points first, wins.
- Emoji balloon drawing activity. I found some old balloons that haven’t been inflated, yet. We will provide each child a blank inflated balloon. Screenshot and print emoji icons from the Viber desktop to use as their reference, or just open the emoticons from our phones. Give them markers. They can draw on their balloons with their favorite emoji.
- Arts & crafts activities. It’s your option to make this a contest or not. This year I found this Crayola Cling Creator, which I wrote about last week. I just bought refills this weekend. I will ask the kids to make a cling as a gift to their parents.
- Do you know me game? We are going to do a match game between two kids to see how well they know each other. First, we will pair up the kids. Then they have 10 minutes to ask each other common things, like favorite color, favorite food, etc. After this, I will give them each a questionnaire to fill up:
- What is your favorite color?
- What is your favorite subject in school?
- What is your favorite food?
- What is your pet’s name?
- Who is the person you look up to?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- When is your birthday?
- What is your favorite hobby or sport?
They will then be seated back to back. Each will be given a board or paper to write on. A parent will be reading the questions. Whoever gets the most answers correctly wins.
I have always looked forward to our annual Christmas get togethers with different group of friends. As much as we deepen our friendship with our lifelong friends, I’ve always loved seeing how my kids are also starting their own meaningful friendships in the process.
Enjoy your Christmas get togethers, everyone! Here’s to another year of laughter and friendship—\kiddie style.