25 Days of a Cozy Christmas in Midlife For Yourself Or A Houseful
Are you looking for ways to create a cozy Christmas? Whether you have a house full of family and friends, or it’s just you, these ideas will help in your efforts to have a cozy Christmas in midlife.
25 Ways to Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife
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Before You Make Plans For Your Cozy Christmas in Midlife
Before you make any plans for a cozy Christmas, check out the following ideas to make a plan. Remember that less is really more when it comes to gifts and activity. Leave room for rest and relaxation!
**Mel talks about holidays with teens and young adults on her YouTube channel!
#1 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Make a plan
Make a plan for the month of December. When are finals for each of your kids? When will they be home? What are your teens’ work schedules? Make a master calendar to keep track of it all. Ask all members of your family what are their top 3 favorite events/traditions that they like to do. Combine all the lists, and let go of any traditions not on there. Re-evaluate each year. Do you have our holiday planner?
#2 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Try something new?
Once the master calendar is set up, ask all participants for the upcoming holiday if they would like to try anything new? It is always fun to try new things. Don’t go crazy adding things. Maybe one new thing a year. Take turns who gets to pick, or put all ideas in a hat and draw one.
#3 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Get everyone’s wish list
Be sure that you have a wishlist from all your teens, adult children, and grandchildren to make sure that your shopping is on target. This can easily be done on Amazon or just by texting you. Do you have a spending limit? Remind them of what that is, and if their list will cost more than that total, they should rank their gifts on the list in the order that they would really like them. Or -do they just want cash?
#4 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Order holiday funwear
Order holiday pajamas for the family to wear on Christmas Eve. Or ugly Christmas sweaters or holiday hoodies or pajama pants…
#5 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Plan a fun event
Check your community’s holiday calendar for any other fun events. Evaluate the age of your family members to make some choices. Get everyone’s feedback. Don’t over plan. Maybe have one event that you would like total participation, and a list of a few optional.
#6 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Bake cookies
Choose a day to bake holiday cookies. Again, ask your teens for their top couple of favorite holiday treats, and don’t even think about baking anything else. There will be plenty more to do!
Or try these cute salt dough ornaments to make as gifts:)
#7 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Watch home movies
Holiday home movies are the best! Pick a night to watch home movies from when they were little. This can be an ongoing activity.
#8 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Volunteer
Schedule a night to work at your local soup kitchen or the food back. There is nothing like it to instill gratitude in our kids and grandkids.
#9 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Wrap gifts
Be sure to make sure you have time planned for gift wrapping. This can be an ongoing activity as well. Set up an extra bedroom with wrapping paper, ribbons, and cards for anyone to take advantage of as needed.
#10 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Christmas light tour
Our teens/young adults still love to take hot chocolate and snacks out for a Christmas light tour. Play holiday music, and enjoy the conversation. We have taken the same tour for years. This can be a romantic night for two if your kids are all away. Check out #17.
#11 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Shopping
Be sure that your teens and young adults have scheduled time to shop for gifts for each other and anyone else that is important in their lives. I usually give them some money or a gift card to their favorite place for lunch, and they have a great time hanging out together.
#12 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Day out with your girlfriends
Plan a day out for yourself with friends. Lunch and shopping or a movie.
#13 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Christmas movie night
Put a few movie nights on your schedule for old holiday favorites. Here is a great list. If you decide to go out to the movies instead, plan ahead by having a gift card in your pocket.
#14 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Put up the tree
We always put up our tree at Thanksgiving. This is different for everyone. I usually at least get the tree up, and then decorate when all the kids are home. Put this on your list of “things to do”.
#15 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Treat your neighbors
Bake bread (we love this easy cinnamon bread -so yummy!) for the neighbors. Have your kids walk over with you so that they can see your kids now as older semi-adults. This is fun for everyone. Take them with you to see friends from old neighborhoods to deliver holiday cheer. This can be so fun!
#16 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Another volunteering opp
Our boys always offer to babysit for another family with younger kids so that the parents can have a night out for the holidays. This is fun for our boys and the young couple is always so grateful! (Bonus, the little kids love this night with the “big” boys.)
#17 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Create a playlist
Create a holiday playlist with everyone’s favorites.
#18 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Have a sleepover
Have a cousin sleepover for old-time’s sake. The more the merrier! Or have a couple’s sleepover with friends -maybe do a holiday murder mystery night!
#19 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Work a puzzle
Work on a holiday jigsaw puzzle. I love this puzzle with all the traditional holiday images! And this one is great with vintage holiday pictures.
#20 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Take some pictures
Be sure to take pictures occasionally, even though they might not want you to. Make sure that you are in a few! One thing that I have been trying to do is to take one of each child with the grandparents so they have their own individual memory. You never know…
#21 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Night in
Spend a night in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate and no cell phones just visiting as a family. Create a charcuterie board or do some fondue! One of our favorite New Year’s Eve was to do fondue with another family years ago.
#22 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Play in the snow
If you are lucky enough to have snow, build a snowman. If there’s no snow, and you have some littles around, here is a recipe for snow sand and another recipe. Cut out paper snowflakes or watch a snow themed movie.
#23 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Make a donation
Donate old towels to the animal shelter, canned goods to the food bank, toys to a local shelter… Have your teens and adult kids go through their closets to fill a bag of things that can head out the door to a new home. Even better, volunteer at one of these places when you take the donation.
There are many places that your family can give a gift for the holiday season. We always set aside a little each month for this, and decide as a family where to send our funds.
Some great organizations to look into would be: Heifer International, Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child box, Operation Gratitude for soldiers overseas, Angel Tree which gives gifts to children whose parents are in prison, or your local food bank.
Another great idea is to do a service project with your family for a favorite charity.
#24 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Family outing
Go ice skating, roller skating, play miniature golf or do some other activity with your family for a fun day.
Our community has a local “magic tree” where we go to take holiday pictures. It is so beautiful! (I looked everywhere for my pictures from a couple of years ago, and I could not find them -it’s hard to capture the lighting, so I may have deleted. But, here is a picture that the church shared -isn’t it pretty?)
And, we love Warm Springs Ranch where the baby Clydesdale’s are born for Budweiser!
#25 Create a Cozy Christmas in Midlife: Interview an older relative
Interview an older relative about their childhood holiday memories. This is such fun! Continue on with other memories that they might have.
Creating a cozy Christmas takes intention and preparation
Sit down now. Make a list of the things that are important to you. Ask your children, grown or not, what are they wanting to get out of the holidays together -not just the gifts.
Remember to plan down time where they can go visit their friends, take naps, and just relax. It’s all about being together even if they aren’t in the same room as you! I love just knowing that my “babies” are all home.🥰
Bonus Must Haves to Create a Cozy Christmas: Hygge
Life happens fast. Take the time to slow down this holiday season.
Create hygge. You hear a lot about this term, but what does it mean? Here is the definition care of Oxford Languages.
hyg·ge
/ˈho͞oɡə,ˈho͝oɡə/
- a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).”why not follow the Danish example and bring more hygge into your daily life?”
Hygge Makes a Cozy Christmas in Midlife
Some ideas for the most cozy Christmas in midlife!🎄
The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living (The Happiness Institute Series)
Ideas to get you started in the pursuit of comfort.
Chunky Knit Blanket Throw
A cozy, chunky-thick blanket for cuddling up on a long winter's night! (Sadly, the dog is not included.)
Related posts to create a cozy Christmas
Best Books Set During Winter to Enjoy!
Mid-Life Self Care: Best Ideas
90+ Jolly Advent Calendars for Everyone
5 Creative Ways to Celebrate the Holidays with Adult Children
50 Best Gifts for Parents and Grandparents
30+ Christmas Books to Enjoy in Midlife
40+ Best Gifts for Teens and and College Students
Do you have our holiday planner?
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