Are your ears ringing with the words “How many sleeps till Christmas”? If they are, here are a few ideas for pre-bedtime activities to help keep kids calm over Christmas. They’re all aimed at ensuring your children remain happy, tired and ready for bed.
5 sleeps to Christmas 🌿
Crafty Christmas Fun
Get a Christmas decoration kit. There are plenty on offer from a variety of retailers. Or why not go DIY? Nothing beats sticking bits of cotton wool together to create a little snowman, or covering your entire kitchen in glitter as you make your own Christmas cards. Honestly, try it. It is fun.
Plus… we all love a good bit of colouring in, whatever age we are. Why not try one of our Sleep Well Christmas colouring sheets? Download them here, here and here. Then sit down around your table with a delicious mug of Sleep Well hot chocolate. The totally natural sleep aid that is safe for all the family, so you can look forward to a peaceful night.
4 sleeps to Christmas 🌿
Christmas Treasure Hunt
We used to get our children to do these and they loved them, whatever the time of year. Come up with a list of easy festive clues. How about ‘where the turkey is going to be cooked’. Answer: the oven. Or ‘where Santa will wash his socks’. Answer: the washing machine.
Give them the first clue and then put each subsequent clue in the place that the previous one leads them to. At the end, there can be a prize. Although we guarantee that kids (young and old!) will have far more fun hunting than they will getting the prize. Most importantly, make sure there’s a prize for each child as you don’t want tears at Christmas!
3 sleeps to Christmas
Festive movie or story magic
There’s nothing better to keep kids calm at Christmas than all curling up together and watching a Christmas movie. There’s sure to be some old favourites on offer, as well as new ones. Check out Good Housekeeping’s list of ‘Best Christmas movies of all time‘.
Don’t forget to have a Sleep Well hot chocolate while you’re watching, to make everyone feel more relaxed and ready for bed. Just make sure dad doesn’t snore through the film and drown out the best bits!
2 sleeps to Christmas
Festive Baking
We know that the little ones can sometimes be a much bigger distraction when they’re trying to ‘help’ you, but baking with them at Christmas can be fun.
The easiest thing to do is give them their own bit of pastry or mixing bowl of goodies and let them make a mess with theirs while you practice your Great British Bake Off techniques alone. BBC Good Food has some great recipes.
1 sleep to Christmas: Christmas Eve
Hopefully you’re all ready for Christmas and you can spend some time together having quality family time. Here are a few more Christmas activities for you and your children to have a fun but relaxing day:
Keep kids calm on Christmas eve
- Go for a walk: This will serve two purposes, firstly it will be enjoyable (as long as it’s not raining) and secondly getting fresh air and exercise will help them sleep later.
- Christmas eve boxes have become popular and it’s a wonderful way to spread the giving. The perfect kind of Christmas eve gifts include cosy pyjamas and a nice Christmas themed story book. Or how about a game that the whole family can play?
- Scatter reindeer food and prepare a little treat for Santa. Reindeer food is very easy to make. Simply get some edible glitter from the cake decoration section of your supermarket and mix in with some oats. As for Santa’s treat? Well, he’ll probably like something that might also take your fancy.
- Track Santa’s journey as he heads across the globe with the Norad Santa Tracker. Kids love watching his progress across the world and it’s a brilliant countdown to when he arrives.
Stock up on Sleep Well to help keep kids calm this Christmas
Finally, don’t forget a nice drink of Sleep Well milk which will help calm everyone down ready for bed. Sleep Well contains a herb called Valerian. It’s safe for all the family and can be drunk hot or cold. The perfect, family friendly bedtime treat. It’s available in chocolate, vanilla, or oat milk.
Wishing you all a very happy, relaxing and sleep-filled Christmas. The Sleep Well team ⭐️
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