Start New Traditions
With the holidays behind us, your kids can get bored. There is no reason to stop celebrating as a family though. Have a family meeting and come up with a new crazy celebration and invite friends or family members to celebrate the new tradition. Let your kids come up with ideas for a theme party. Let you kids be the interior designers. Some silly, simple ideas include Western Vampires or Hawaiian Snow Sports.

Make it simple by having a potluck meal and have your guests bring their favorite dish. The goal is to have fun as family and friends and enjoy one another.

Have a classic movie night with just your family and have popcorn and ice cream sundaes. Tell stories to your kids about when you and your spouse were kids. Be sure to share your favorite movie with them.

Make a visit to your local library and look at kid’s cookbooks. Children’s cookbooks include fun and wacky ideas for different dishes. Make a new dessert and see if you can find a new, simple family favorite.

Initiate Gratitude
Being thankful is often connected with Thanksgiving and since that holiday is over; it is easy to forget about gratefulness. So keep the idea alive and start a journal with your family. Have kids list all the things and people that they are grateful for. Add to it each month. Model for them a grateful attitude and talk about being content.

Recycle Your Tree
Place your Christmas tree outside and decorate it with bird cookies. You can get recipes on the internet by looking up bird feeder crafts. You can decorate your tree or any branches of a living tree in your yard with pinecones slathered with a mixture of peanut butter, margarine, and bird seed. You and your kids can sit inside your home at a window and watch birds come and feed. Grab a bird book at the library and see if you can identify different birds in your area. If you have a budding artist in your family, have him draw the different birds that visit.

Exercise
After all the great food of the holidays, you may be feeling you overindulged too much. Take your kids out with you on a walk. Research demonstrates exercise helps boost mood, improves mental focus, and decreases appetite. Start slow and walk for 20 minutes. You can also turn on the music loud and play freeze dance with your kids.

Study Winter
Study winter and all its features with your kids. You can make a trip to the library and select winter picture books if you have younger children. Picture books are often a delight to study no matter how old you are. Ask the children’s librarian for
recommendations.

Hibernation is a fun topic to study with your children. Not all animals hibernate, and there are degrees of hibernation. A variety of both warm and cold-blooded animals hibernate. If you have older children, have them find pictures of the different animals and make a chart.

Decorate your house with paper snowflakes. Construction paper, glitter and gel pens can add to their creations.
When you go out for a walk, have your children point out the different type of trees. Deciduous trees are the trees that lose their leaves. Evergreen trees are, like their name says, evergreen throughout the year.

Find books on the weather. Read children’s poetry about the weather and have your children close their eyes as you read to them. Ask them what they see in their minds.

Snow People
Snow is an entertaining event even if you don’t live near any. Snowman can be made out of clay, dough, cotton balls, or construction paper. Your kids can make a snow community including stores, offices, vehicles, and people from recycled cereal boxes and plastic milk containers. Talk about what a community needs to survive.

Decorate
Bring the outside beauty inside with branches, leaves, and rocks. Have your kids try different possibilities with your table centerpiece. Collect a variety of foliage on your walks to make a centerpiece on your table.

Bring Green Inside
During the holidays, our homes are decorated bright colors with many lights. After the holidays, our homes can be bleak and barren. Buy a bulb kit that can be grown in the house. Get your kids involved with planting and watering the plant. Paper whites, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and amaryllis bulbs kits are available in most discount stores.

Winter is normally a quieter, simple time with family. However, your home can be still filled with laughter and fun.

Jan Udlock is a mom of 5 and a freelance writer. She can be contacted at JanUdlock.com.