How To Keep Kids Occupied This Christmas Holiday
Last Updated on: 13th December 2023, 12:35 pm
Keep Kids Occupied This Christmas Holiday
The kids are excited, they won’t calm down. They’re getting under your feet at your busiest time of the year and they basically will not leave you alone. So what are you going to do to keep kids occupied this Christmas holiday? Many schools are closing soon and then you have them home for a week or more before the big day. Keeping them occupied and calmed down can be difficult. Even older kids like teens and pre-teens get under your feet because they are bored.
Back in the day when we were their age, we didn’t have expensive phones to play on. We never had Playstation 5’s or Xboxes. So we wanted to share some ideas of traditional games that you can occupy the little darlings with before Christmas and many of them only cost pocket money prices too.
There are many other things at home that you can do with the kids, that won’t cost a lot of money. If you have a cookery book, get the kids to go through it and find some cakes to bake. Or how about a movie day with the kids? Get the hot chocolate, and blankets. Then snuggle together under the duvet and find some Christmas movies to watch.
Jaques Dinosaur Car Park
All kids love dinosaurs and all mums love wooden toys for their kids. So this is a win-win situation for everyone. The Dinosaur Car Park isn’t just your average car park. It has been invaded by dinosaurs. So as your little ones are pushing their cars down the car park slopes, the dinosaurs are ready to invade.
The car park is made completely from wood and has dinosaur pictures on the front. It has a solid wooden base to hold it upright and make it sturdy for the little ones to play with. The cars go down one slope, then flip and go down the next slope. Finally, the last slope makes the car come out onto the floor. It is exciting for them to watch it come down. But if they place a dinosaur on the slopes, the cars stop and they cannot get passed.
This is great for kids who love dinosaurs and cars. They can make up their own stories with their imagination and they can live in their own little world for a few hours. The Dinosaur Car Park is a great way to introduce physics to your child at a young age. As they play they will learn about forces, movement and the effect of gravity. The Dinosaur CarPark is normally £24.99 but is on sale for a bargain price of £10 (date correct as of 15/12/2021). Delivery is within 5 days but can take longer at this time of the year. Jaques have a wide range of toys to choose from to keep your kids occupied.
Mario Party Superstars On Nintendo Switch
We all know that kids love a bit of tech, but with a Nintendo Switch, your kids can at least sit outside whilst playing the game. Mario Was one of the most popular games on the old NES and Atari systems, back in the ’80s. It was a game we grew up on and now play it with our kids.
The game has 5 classic boards from the Nintendo 64 era to have fun playing. As well as 100 minigames from across the series in Mario Party Superstars which can be enjoyed by the whole family this festive period as well as the kids. The game is a board game and as you play, you collect coins and other goodies. You and your child get to choose the rules and how you want to play. If your kids want to play with their friends you will need to pay for them to go online.
There are 100 mini-games that are played with the button controllers, but everyone can play with a joy-con controller or a Nintendo Switch Pro controller. So whatever console you have, you can all join in with the fun. The better that you do in the mini-games, the more coins you will earn. You then use those coins to buy items in the main game and also buy stars. The more stars that you have in the main game, the more likely you are to win the game.
The game is perfect for kids over 3 years old, so even the smallest family members can join in the fun. You can buy the game from Nintendo Store for £49.99. That is all you need to pay, there are no further in-game purchases to pay for. The game comes in physical form or digital form. If you use the digital version, you don’t need to worry about carrying a game around with you. I find this option so much easier. Games never get lost that way.
Jaques Activity Cube
This activity cube is perfect for little ones. Around the side, your child can find the right shape and pop it into the matching hole. You can play this with your toddler in so many different ways because of everything that it teaches them. You can teach them colours, numbers as well as shapes.
The top of the activity centre has beads, so your child can use their fingers to move the beads along the trail. From one side of the activity centre to the other. It is great for fine motor skills. In fact, the whole activity centre is a great learning toy for your toddler. They learn logic, reasoning and will make mistakes, getting the shapes in the right holes. But eventually, they will get the hang of it and it will be a great confidence builder for them.
The toy is mainly made from wood, so it is sustainable too. The activity cube is £19.99 from Jacques and well worth the money because there are so many hours of fun in the toy.
Disney Top Trumps
We all played this when we were younger, didn’t we? Back in the 1980’s when it was all about football players and insects. Or was that only me? Nowadays you can buy Top Trumps as all kinds of games. Here we have Disney Top Trumps, but recently we add a Friends Top Trumps to our Christmas gift guide too. This is a cheap way to keep kids occupied this Christmas holiday.
With these Top Trumps, you get to compete with all of the other players in the game and you want to be the winner. In order to win the game, you need to have the highest score on the cards.
To play you need to divide the cards between all of the players. The cards all have different characters on them and then one person chooses one of the options. The higher the number, the better the chance of winning.
- Debut
- No. Of Songs
- Laughter
- Adventure
- Top Trumps Rating
If you choose laughter rating and it is 19, like the Bambi card, but your opponent has 28 like the Peter Pan card. The Peter Pan card is going to win because it is higher. You give your card to your opponent. The winner is the one with all of the cards at the end. Disney Top Trumps is £8.00 to buy. There are also facts on each card, so your kid is learning as they play.
Cbeebies Christmas Panto
For a way to keep kids occupied this Christmas holiday, there is the Cbeebies Christmas Panto now available at the cinema. It is aimed at the smaller ones. This is perfect as a pit stop with Christmas shopping or a pre-Christmas treat. This year’s panto is introduced by Mr Tumble as usual. A firm favourite for the little ones that are watching. The panto is The Night Before Christmas, where Mr Tumble reads the real story.
Then it moves to the Cbeebies version where the Cbeebies personalities star in a story. It is all about how the Wish Taker takes away all of the wishes from the children in the land. Holly has to travel far and wide to find the wish taker and get all of the Christmas wishes to Father Christmas before Christmas morning starts.
Your child will love the singing and dancing in the panto as well as the feeling of magic in the air. The panto is interactive and it is excellent on the huge cinema screen. Your kids will see all of their favourite Cbeebies characters, taking part in the panto. They will recognise Ben Cajee, Nigel Clarke, Jennie Dale, Gemma Hunt, Maddie Moate, Evie Pickerill, Cat Scandion and more of their favourites. The film goes on for just over an hour. There are also extra parts in the cinema to watch.
