Hashtag MomFail

The Top Five Ways to Keep Your Kids Entertained During Christmas Break

Written by Jamie Johnson

Christmas break is right around the corner…which means Christmas is right around the corner…which means I am silently panicking because I’m completely unprepared.

But this article isn’t about me. It’s about the kiddos we love so much. It’s about the cheese-induced coma that will come post-Christmas. It’s about actually being prepared for once and coming up with tasks for your kiddos to complete while they are on Christmas break.

I am tired of having my children cling to my lifeless body complaining they are bored during Christmas break. They just got mountains of toys and they want to say there is nothing to play with and can they watch other kids open their Christmas presents on YouTube. They don’t understand that I really need to catch up on Love Is Blind on Netflix.

This year, when they say they are bored, I will make them complete a task of my choice. They are finally old enough where I slightly trust them to do things around the house without putting themselves in immediate danger.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Have them take all the ornaments and lights off the Christmas tree and put them in their respective storage bins. I have zero faith that they will complete this task to my or your liking, but at least it will be complete. I will personally monitor this activity to see how well they treat the ornaments, because I would like to get rid of my ugly shatterproof ornaments one day. Most likely, they will prove to me that shatterproof ornaments are still a necessity.

Make sure they watch The Price Is Right during the week. As a child, I really looked forward to watching it on breaks and sick days. The Price Is Right was always better with a Sprite and saltine crackers at your Grandma’s house. But every child should feel the anticipation of knowing Plinko will be played after the next commercial break. It’s more of a rite of passage than anything.

Give them the option to clear out their old toys or you will shovel them all into trash bags. This usually works for me. The kids bring home new toys and I feel overwhelmed, so I make them do the sorting for me. They normally pick a pretty nice number of toys to donate. Disclaimer: This will trigger the “I swear I play with this, Mom” effect. No, I know for a fact you don’t play with that action figure that you found under your bed next to a dust bunny. Good try, buddy.

Force them to unbox all their new toys. If you are so bored right now, open that box with the submarine and 50 tiny accessories that are all zip tied tightly to a piece of cardboard. Yes, I will be OK when I step on a tiny squid or snorkel later, but for now, save me the finger cramps from trying to get everything out of the box. Tip: Tell them to act like they are a YouTuber unboxing the new hot toy. This will make them more likely to do it.

Teach them where to find the breakfast food when they decide to get up at 5 a.m. This has personally changed my life for the better. I can actually sleep in on the weekends. I can now happily wake up at 7 a.m. and walk down the stairs to children watching TV while eating cereal straight out of the box. Is this sanitary? No. Do I care? No. Sleep is very important to me.

So that’s it. That’s all I’ve got for you. I hope that you can somehow benefit from my list. I also hope that you get the chance to catch up on Love Is Blind. You deserve some down time. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! OP

JAMIE JOHNSON is a full-time working mom to two little boys, wife to Logan, and part-time writer. Her pieces have been featured in HuffPost Parents, Motherly, Today Parents and PopSugar Moms. You can follow her blog at HashtagMomFail.com!

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