Christmas Scavenger Hunt: Fun for Older Children

When children are little, their presents reside in mounds beneath the tree. Christmas morning is a flurry of ripping paper and squeals. The unwrapping lasts and you are able to enjoy their expressions and their true joy in unwrapping and discovering the wonders of Christmas morning. As children get older, their presents become more expensive and therefore, they have less to unwrap. The time spent unwrapping and the time to enjoy the same is diminished. Several years ago, I decided to find a way to stretch out the time my daughter spent on Christmas morning with her presents. This also had the added benefit of keeping her as part of the family for longer! No iPods plugged into the ears and no retreat to the bedroom to brood in teenage angst.

I began the tradition of a Christmas scavenger hunt and now my daughter looks forward to it every year. If I did not do the hunt, she would be disappointed! Ages for the hunt can vary. I started doing this when my daughter was 9 and she is now almost 15. I have made the clues and the hiding spots harder as she got older so that she still has a challenge ahead of her!

The basic idea behind the scavenger hunt is to make your child find their presents! I have several small gifts under the tree for my daughter as well as her stocking. I usually hide the first clue either inside one of her presents or hanging on the tree. She then must follow the clues to locate her other presents. You can have your child either open each gift as they find it (but they must come back to the tree to open it) or have them locate all of the presents before they can open any of them.

Hiding places can range from under the kitchen sink to inside your car's glove box. I have even hidden a present under my daughter's bed before (she is a sound sleeper!). Decide on your hiding places first and write them down. Then, you must think up clues to each hiding spot. When I began this game, I just wrote out easy little riddles like: I am hiding in the place where your hands stay warm on the go. As my daughter got older, I started to write the clues in code to make it more challenging. She now expects me to have them harder each year!

Once your clues are written down, you can tape them to the top of your packages. Each package should be hidden and the clue that is on it should lead to the next hiding place. Don't get confused and hide the packages in the wrong spots! I did that one year and then had to go and rehide all of them! Once you have hidden all of the packages, you should have one clue left which leads to the first hiding spot.

Decide how to deliver the first clue. The first year that you do this, you will need to explain to your child what is happening. You can just hand them the first clue and explain or you can be devious like me! I let my daughter think that she had only gotten a few gifts. And then I pointed out that there was a little envelope on the rear of the Christmas tree. When she opened that it included instructions for the hunt as well as the first clue. She was so funny when she realized that she had more presents to locate! I would suggest hiding between 5 and 10 gifts. Anything above that becomes difficult to hide. And my creativity suffers the more I have to think up clues!

If you have a fun loving child with a love of games and tricks, then this is for you. Children with a low frustration level may not enjoy having to hunt for their gifts. And teenagers may think it is silly but they will enjoy it! I let my daughter bring each gift back to the tree and open it as she locates it. That way the entire process lasts longer. She enjoys seeing what presents are revealed by each clue and truly appreciates the thought that goes into both the gifts and the game. If you decide to try this out, keep in mind that the first year you do it may be harder. It takes time to work out clues. But, I hope you enjoy yourself!