It’s all very well if you’ve booked a Christmas break where the food, itinerary and entertainment is all wrapped up, but for many, Christmas is the cause of stress. What to cook, what to buy, what to do to keep the family occupied – these are key questions which make many of us break out into a cold sweat on a yearly basis. Don’t worry though, if you’re not one of the lucky few going away this Christmas, we have some ideas on what to do.
The After Dinner Quiz
After dinner quizzes are a great way of filling the food coma-fuelled void between Christmas dinner and the Queen’s Speech, plus they’re great ice breakers if you’re cross-mingling members of different families. We recently tried and tested this great picture round where you have to pick out 28 Christmas songs. All you need to do is print it off and start guessing. Quiz questions can be downloaded for free on the internet – try www.quiz-zone.co.uk for a good place to start.
Escape Room
Escape rooms are one of the latest crazes to take off, where a group of keen puzzle-goers are locked in a room with a theme and required to crack a series of logical puzzles to ‘unlock’ the door and escape. To make things exciting there’s a time limit of 60 minutes. We couldn’t find any kits online, but you can create your own scenario with a brief plot, a few props to set the scene and provide clues (some red herrings and some not), and a few combination padlocks, which when unlocked lead to different clues and ultimately, the code to escape.
Kids
Who said that entertaining the kids was necessary when you can get the kids to entertain you? Little ones are usually more than willing to put on a show of some sort if you only ask. Previous forms of family entertainment include a “light show” (involving toy light sabres, curtains as a make-shift stage and dancing to music in the dark) or if anyone is musically inclined why not dig out some instruments. Just remember to hide any breakable objects if any physical activity is involved.
Karaoke
It’s surprising how popular karaoke or a singalong can be, especially if there was brandy in the Christmas pudding and wine was doing the rounds at dinner. Many games consoles have games involving singing (SingStar, Konami Karaoke Revolution, Lips:Party Classics, Disney Sing It) or dancing (Just Dance) which are really good fun, and they’re also a good way of shaking off a few Christmas calories.
Traditional Party and Board Games
Unless you want to be there until next Christmas we wouldn’t recommend Monopoly, but pin the beard on Father Christmas, charades… there are loads of games out there which either don’t involve a lot of money and effort or you probably already own. Heads Up is a popular mobile app (£0.79) where a player holds a phone against their forehead and the rest of the group have to act out the word on the phone for the player with the phone to guess. To add further entertainment and embarrassment the role play is also videoed.
The Post Dinner Walk
Probably the last resort especially if it’s cold, but a popular favourite is a bracing afternoon walk to blow away the cobwebs and make room for the impending dollop of sherry trifle, cold meat and pickled onions.
What do you do on Christmas Day?
