With Christmas rolling around and the colder months drawing in, families are gathering together indoors for longer spells. This is usually when you polish off the family favorite films and bring out the pack of cards or the board game. These activities – moments you share and cherish with your closest kin – are associated with coziness and happiness. And there’s always space for more of them. In this short guide, we’ll propose a set of new activities you and your family can enjoy as the darkest night of the year draw swiftly in this winter.
Gold Panning
This might sound absurd, but there are ways in which you can pan for gold in your own home. This doesn’t mean turning on the tap and hoping for a nugget to drop out – it means investing in Irwin’s Paydirt, which sells bags of dirt for you and your family to sift through for golden nuggets and shards. Buying gold pay dirt and having it delivered to your home is an exciting experience and something entirely novel for you and your family to sink your collective teeth into this winter.
Making Music
Whether you’re a musical family or not, there’s nothing more joyous than feeling that you’re a collective unit, producing music together. There are plenty of ways to do this if you have no experience with music whatsoever, including sets that you can purchase with simple sheet music and simple instruments – like tuned bells – for you to play together. Or, if you have a couple of musical people in the family, allow them to lead the group and create a space for singing and dancing as you enjoy the living space in your home together.
Parlor Games
The most underrated of games, getting yourselves into a family competition with plenty of giggles is the perfect way to spend a family evening together. You’ll find plenty of parlor game options online, out of which require, at the most, a pen and paper for you to get cracking. If you’re a family with a good deal of general knowledge, why not try writing a quiz – giving each family member ten questions to write and read themselves while the others try to answer them. You can be as silly or as earnest as you want with this quiz, inventing questions about your family history as well as general knowledge teasers.
Cooking
Winter is a time of feasting, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year typically taken up with dinner tables heaving with food and drink. Rather than leaving one or two people in your family with the responsibility of producing these amazing assemblages of food, why not get everyone involved? Assign roles, get your children excited about getting messy with ingredients, and have a laugh at music in the warmth of your kitchen. When you serve up your family-created feast, everyone will have a stake in the food you’re eating, creating a wonderful sense of togetherness and unity across your family.
Make your long winter nights more exciting by engaging in some of the above activities that are novel, but incredibly fun.
