Cheap Ways to Spend Holiday Time with Your Children

In these difficult economic times, it's important to know how to spend time together as a family without having to bust your wallet to shreds while doing so. With the holidays right around the corner, what better way to spend time together than to focus on the holidays? Here you will find some cheap and easy ways to spend quality holiday time with your children.

Holiday Movies and Television Shows -- During this time of the year television stations are airing holiday movies, cartoons, and shows left and right. What better time to curl up with your children and a hot bowl of popcorn than right now? If you have a DVR (digital video recorder) you can save up several of these holiday specials and just make a weekend of watching them all. The kids will love spending time with you and you'll be able to reminisce over holidays past. Specials like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town will be airing multiple times on numerous television stations during the month of December. Of course, my all-time favorite is The Christmas Story! My children enjoy it right along side me every Christmas Eve.

Decorate For the Holidays -- Some people are very precise about their holiday decorating. They want them to be just so and soon forget that the holiday season is for family and children. Therefore, let your children jump in and help. Let them decorate the tree, hang stockings, make colorful paper chains to loop around the house. Don't nit-pick if things don't look absolutely perfect, because things do look absolutely perfect to the child who did the decorating. Sometimes the best, most beautiful holiday decorations are the ones that come from the imagination of your child. Decorate together and your be spending some wonderful holiday time with your amazing children.

Bake Holiday Goodies -- Another fabulous way to spend holiday time with your children is to take the time to bake holiday goodies with them. Everyone loves holiday goodies, and your children are no different. Find something that they love--oatmeal cookies, fudge, coconut cake--and have your children help out as much as possible. Let them mix, add ingredients, spoon mixtures into pans, sprinkle toppings. You're sure to never meet a child who wouldn't want to be by your side mixing something they love to eat.

Go See Holiday Lights -- In most towns, you'll be able to find that one special neighborhood that lights up the night with a display of holiday lights fit for a king. This is a fantastic, cheap way to spend holiday time with your children. Take them around, show them the lights, watch as the amazement of childhood lights up their little faces. This is the most wonderful time of year, share that wonder with your children. Turn some holiday music on the car radio and go for an evening drive with them. You may even enjoy the lights you find as well.

Enjoy the Holiday Parades -- As with the holiday lights displays above, most towns will have holiday parades around this time of year. Take the children, find a good seat, and enjoy the free show. Your children may even walk away from a handful of goodies thrown from the passing parade floats. Bundle up in a warm coat and take along a thermos of steaming hot chocolate!

Make Homemade Gifts/Cards -- Lastly, spend a cold, winter day around the kitchen table making homemade gifts and holiday cards with your children. Spread out an array of construction papers, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, glitter, and stickers and see what your children can come up with. Your family and friends will be in awe of the glorious holiday cards that they will receive from you this year. Watch your child's face beam with accomplishment at each compliment they receive.

These are only a few of the fun things that you can do with your children during the holiday season. Your children will always remember the fun times they had with you during these cheap and free times, and you won't have to worry about breaking the bank. In the process, you may even create some brand new family traditions that will last for years to come.

Happy Holidays to all! Enjoy your times together to the fullest and remind the children that this time of the year is about family, and not the next expensive toy on the market (though those are fun too!).

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