10 Activities for Christmas Weekend with Your Family

Make quality family time the highlight of this holiday season by participating in these fun activities for Christmas weekend.

1) Christmas Light Tour
Bundle up and squeeze into the family car to tour your area for Christmas light displays. See who can spot the most inflatable Santas and light up reindeer, and then vote on which house has the gaudiest display or the most beautiful.

2) Exercise
Avoid holiday weight gain, or at least holiday eating guilt, by participating in a 5K with your family. Many communities have running events Christmas weekend, and most are open to walkers. This year, you can catch up with Aunt Marge on a brisk walk instead of on the couch.

3) Host a Party
Try a fun spin on a traditional holiday party by hosting an ugly sweater party or having a white elephant gift exchange.

4) Bake
Baking is a wonderful way to spend quality time as a family, and the delicious goodies make it that much more enjoyable. You can bake and decorate sugar cookies, prepare a pan of cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast, or try your hand at candies like caramels or divinity. If you don't have a traditional Christmas treat in your family, start one!

5) Craft Ornaments
Spend some time as a family crafting ornaments for your Christmas tree. You can pick up paintable wooden or ceramic ornaments for under a $1 a piece at your local craft store. Make reindeer ornaments with candy canes or clothes pins by adding pipe cleaner antlers and gluing on plastic eyes. Smaller children can twist white and red pipe cleaners together and then bend them into a candy cane shape to hang on the tree.

6) Start a Game Tradition
Listen to some holiday music, turn on the Christmas tree lights, and show your kids just how good you are at Monopoly.

7) Take Family Pictures
If your family is all gathered together for the Christmas holiday weekend, use it as an opportunity to snap some family photos.

8) Show Thanks to Santa and the Reindeer
Let your kids write a quick thank you note to Santa for his thoughtfulness and hard work every year. Prepare some cookies and milk for the big man, and don't forget carrots for the reindeer.

9) Movie Night
Slip into your pajamas, pop some popcorn, and cuddle up with the ones you love for a Christmas themed movie night. Enjoy traditional favorites such as "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," "A Christmas Story," or "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Newer Christmas classics worth watching include "The Santa Clause" and "The Polar Express."

10) Track Santa's Progress
NORAD is a military organization with a Christmas Eve tradition of tracking Santa's progress as he travels the globe delivering gifts. On their website, using Google Earth, you can see which communities Santa has visited and watch as he gets closer and closer to your area.