With the festive season almost upon us, it can prove to be a very expensive time for families, with gift to buy, parties to attend, trips to visit Santa and higher spending it can be a tough time for the old purse strings.
I’m conscious that lots of great activities at Christmas are expensive and that it feels almost never-ending but there are some great low cost activities that can be loads of fun and easy on the pocket. Here are my top 5 low cost Christmas activities.
- An evening drive or walk around a local town to look at the Christmas lights. Incredibly low cost, but wrap up warm and take a good look at the lights. It’s a fun activity and easy too. Throw in a thermos of hot chocolate and perhaps find a bench to sit on and admire the lights!
- Search the TV channels for a Christmas movie, even the Freeview channels have them this time of year. Snuggle up under a blanket and drink up the Christmas atmosphere.
- Print Christmas colouring sheets off from the internet and perhaps invest in some glitter and a glue stick and spend an afternoon making pictures and cards for family and friends or just to decorate your home. Either way you will end up with pretty pictures and happy kids!
- Instead of visiting a big department store Santa or attending a special event keep your eyes peeled for local Church/Community Centre events that often have a very authentic Santa and a Christmas market to enjoy too. Likely to be a lot cheaper but just as magical. Our local church decorate a corner of the church hall and make an incredible magical wintery wonderland and charge just a few pounds per visit including a small toy. Santa spends a minute of two with each child and pays close attention to what they want, making them feel very special
- Write a letter to Santa, get some paper, a catalogues and some scissors and cut out pictures to support the items on the list, ideal for small children who can’t write and makes a lovely item to photograph with your child prior to a walk to the post office to send it off to Santa.
Finally, make use of your local area, often houses will have Christmas light displays to look at, take advantage of the great Christmas displays locally, every area has someone who just loves Christmas, seek out their house and revel in the festive cheer!
Written by our regular contributor Annwen.
Website: http://www.realsuburbanmummy.com
Twitter: @suburban1mummy
All views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Room To Grow.
