Our Conscious Christmas Countdown family activity idea for today is to create your very own DIY Christmas game for everyone at home to enjoy. Playing games has been a long standing tradition for many families at Christmas time. And we couldn’t imagine a year without a board game, or charades! However, these games can become pretty tiresome after a while and sometimes a DIY game can really liven things up.
The Truth About Unwanted Gifts
As children (and maybe even now if we admit it) giving and receiving gifts was one of the most exciting parts of Christmas. However, did you know every year it is estimated that on average children get up to 38 gifts at Christmas, many of which will never even be played with or see #100uses before it breaks and ends up in the bin. Many of these toys are made from cheap plastic, cannot be recycled and end up in landfill.
We certainly don’t want to put a dampener on your festive celebrations, but this is a harsh reality. Plastic and non-recyclable presents are not just for Christmas, they are for life.
Shopping Consciously – Gifts for Life
When shopping for your loved ones this year, try considering your purchases and buy responsibly. We know that this can be hard to do during this hectic time of the year. That is why we have launched our own ethical gift guides, which you can check out here.
If you’re just looking for a little fun, nothing too serious, a great option is to make your own silly stocking filler and gifts. It’s far more sustainable to create some games from things around the house (old card, old boxes, etc.) and put them to better use.
DIY Games
Another fun way to combat the unnecessary waste that accumulates at Christmas is to have creative hacks up your sleeve to transform trash into treasure, or fun games at least.
Most homes are filled with ‘stuff’ that can be upcycled into something new. If you’ve got young kids, consider creating a game that involves crafts, outdoor play and utilising items that would end up in the bin.
Remember being a kid? Didn’t you always love playing with boxes? Or an old Fairy washing up bottle? With some direction, scissors and glue, a family can be occupied for hours.
Game: Roll the Dice to Craft & Create
Here’s the basic game prep instructions:
Grab a dice. Cut up some cards, (whatever colours you have) say 6-10 in green and 6 in red and on the back of the red cards only, number them from 1-6.
Red = Theme (6 cards)
On the red cards write a theme, like ‘space’, ‘the zoo’, ‘princesses and princes’, ‘robots’, etc.
Green = Materials (6-10)
On the back of each green card, suggest a material (easily found at home)
Hand out some paper + pencils so all players can write down their list of materials.
Lay out the green cards face down so players cannot see what is written on them.
Lay out the red cards face down, with numbers visible.
How to play the game:
Player 1 starts by rolling the dice.
The number it lands on will be the number of green cards each player can select to find out what materials they can use in their crafting.
Between each player that rolls the dice, shuffle the green cards after a player has selected their materials.
Player 2 does the same, continuing until all players have written down the materials they can use.
The first one to roll a 6 can pick a Red Theme card, write it down and add back to the pack.
Then each player rolls the dice and gets to pick their card and theme.
The rest of the rules, aka who wins prizes, if the crafting is time bound, etc., is down to you.
Note: you can adapt this game for adults, add more cards from 1-6 and add more materials + themes and keep building upon it to make it work for your family 🙂
We hope you enjoyed this fun little tip; it really is a great activity for all the family and will give you something to do while nan is sleeping off the Christmas dinner. Don’t forget to come back and let us know in the comments how you got on!