Healthy Holiday Season Ideas

[tw1nsmom]

In our family we've been trying to change our lifestyle to a more healthy one. So many holidays are centered around really unhealthy food.

With the holiday season coming up, I want to come up with some fun and special activities/traditions that don't have anything to do with eating or that substitute truly great healthy eating for junk. I also don't want my children to feel deprived or punished in any way.

I have no problem with cookies or treats on the actual holidays. It's just that in years past, I've found that the unhealthy eating extends beyond the actual holidays.

I also want to add that we celebrate all the holidays from a secular perspective. We're not religious people. However, all ideas are welcome. Maybe someone else who is religious and is trying to make their lives healthier could benefit from some of these ideas too.

 

[tw1nsmom]

Anybody?

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

We used to love making ornaments out of cinnamon and applesause...cut out with cookie cutters and hang on a tree!

Also, what about organizing the neighborhood kids to go caroling? If you're not too religious than not "Away in a Manger," but how about Rudolph, Jingle Bells, etc? They can make costumes, get some exercise walking around the neighborhood...actually, maybe you could even take the kids to a nursing home to carol and they could bring their ornaments (or cards, etc.) to the residents?

I'll keep thinking...

 

[worm761]

How old are your children? And what sort of traditions are you looking for?

You could adopt a family, donate food/time to a food bank, make Christmas tree ornaments and take them to a retirement home. you could gather up old toys your kids don't play with and donate them somewhere. You could bake cookies for the Church service. You can drive around and look at Christmas lights.

We have a few. Every year, we buy a new Christmas ornament for the tree. Everyone gets to pick one. I can see my son grow up on my tree. I have everything from the Simpsons to Sponge Bob from when he was little. Every year we go to Build a Bear just before Christmas and build a bear. Seems an odd tradition but we do it every year.

You might do better to search for some of the What are your holiday traditions threads that have popped up over the years.

 

[mtemm]

go to a tree farm to cut down your own christmas tree. lots of good exercise walking thru the fields, not food centric, and lots of fun.

start a tradition of going skating one day/night then off to look at christmas decorations after.

donate time/resources to help those less fortunate....giving trees and such.

invite friends to a sledding party instead of to a food-packed party

host an ornament decorating party

make gingerbread houses (you don't have to eat the treats, just use them for decoration

see what your town/neighboring towns have going on...any christmas festivities? carolers? bell concerts?

start a tradtion to go see a christmas play/concert. we used to go to the boston pops concert every year. so much fun!

 

[tw1nsmom]

We used to love making ornaments out of cinnamon and applesause...cut out with cookie cutters and hang on a tree!

Also, what about organizing the neighborhood kids to go caroling? If you're not too religious than not "Away in a Manger," but how about Rudolph, Jingle Bells, etc? They can make costumes, get some exercise walking around the neighborhood...actually, maybe you could even take the kids to a nursing home to carol and they could bring their ornaments (or cards, etc.) to the residents?

I'll keep thinking...

Good ideas! How do you make ornaments out of cinnamon and applesauce? I have no problem with religious songs. I grew up singing them and I make it a point to teach my children about all the religions and celebrations of the season.

One idea I had read about was to pick a book for the whole family and read out loud from it every night instead of focusing on cookies and eating.

 

[mtemm]

something I do with my kids (age 7, 5, 5) and have for a few years that I just thought of. we have an advent calendar, the kind that is a wooden box with lots of doors that you place little treats, etc, in. its something we have year after year, not a disposable one. what I do instead of leaving treats is write a special message each day with something fun planned for that day. could be something as simple as each picking a story to read, or watching a special christmas movie, or a special playdate that day. could be baking cookies (you could do a healthy treat instead), or picking out a gift for the giving tree, or going skating, or sledding, or a special christmas craft. occasionally I'll put a treat in, but only once or twice. they LOVE LOVE LOVE this, and its a ton of fun. doesn't matter how big or small the days fun is, they just love the surprise and the specialness of it.

 

[tw1nsmom]

I like all of these ideas. My children are both 9. In the past we would spend time baking for our house and others. However even if we plan on giving away most of what we bake we'll end up sampling too much of the product.

I'm looking at big and little ideas. They can be for Thanksgiving, Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years.

We like to put up our tree after Thanksgiving (artificial...allergies) and turn on the lights every night and watch Christmas specials. I would like some treat ideas that were healthy or not food related that the kids could enjoy while watching the shows.

I would also like any ideas that would get us up and moving in a fun way. We already are exercising for health. I'm talking about fun activities where the kids don't realize they're getting exercise/being healthy.

 

[LindaR]

But you can still do "foodie" things too.

What about involving the whole family in doing stuff (healthy stuff) in the kitchen? Let the kids make snack trays from raw veggies. If they are doing the "work" then its easier to get them to eat what they have created.

 

[mtemm]

some healthier treats are fruits dipped in melted dark chocolate. strawberries are wonderful, but other fruits can be very yummy, too.

roast some nuts

pop some popcorn in the fireplace or on the stove

 

[disbridemimi]

Me and Df always go for a brisk walk on Thanksgiving morning, to ease the guilt for later.

If you go to someone elses home, bring your own healthy dish so at least you know there is something you can eat if trying to be healthy.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

One of our "traditions" is that we buy an ornament for each one of us every yr and we also get a "yr" ornament for the tree.

I have a dd in college and a 7th grader now. We have ALOT of ornaments now. I need a bigger tree!

You can see the phases my kids went thru the yrs and reminders of pets that are now gone.

Now it is nothing that is "huge" as an activity but it has grown into a nice tradition that is reflected on the tree. They think carefully about their ornament purchase. My plan is once they move out on their own with their own tree they can have their ornaments back and have memories of growing up.

I have ornaments from my childhood on there.

 

[golfgal]

The way I look at it, holidays are a time to splurge and do things you wouldn't normally do-like pig out on turkey and all of the fixings. A day or two of eating junk isn't going to hurt anyone. Now, if you start pigging out on Halloween and continue all the way through New Years, that's a different story.

 

[FireDancer]

Do you have any state, city, or county parks in your area? Around here we have a lot of parks that do activities centered around the holidays. There are winter hikes out to pine groves and snowshoeing and cross country skiing provided there is snow. Events like these are usually moderately active so you don't have to be an Olympian to participate.

Is there a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving in your area? Around here we have one that is a 5 miler and two that are a 5K. Most Turkey Trots also have a 1 mile fun run for kids too young for 3.1 or 5 miles and most allow walkers.

As far as healthier eating, it is possible with some planning and self control. Having a couple extra cookies or a piece of Cheesecake isn't going to kill anyone but it is easy to overdo it at the holidays with all the parties.

A couple of tips we talk about on the WISH boards are to use a small salad plate instead of a dinner plate to control portions. Identify the least healthy option at dinner and decide you are going to stay away from at least that item. If you are going to a party decide you are going to bring something healthier so that at least you know there is one healthy option. I have a lentil dish I usually bring. For dessert some yogurt, granola, and fruit makes a really good dessert that is better than most baked goods.

Adding an extra 30 minutes to you normal physical activities will help to counter some of the increased calories. I spend a lot more time at the gym in November and December because I know come January they will be crowded with people who sign up and come for 2 weeks.

Good luck.

 

[KAMKIM]

In our neighborhood there are 2 drive through light displays, they are alot of fun and usually only cost $15 per carload of people or so. We turn up the christmas music in the car, get some hot chocolate and drive through. Most of the displays are animated and the kids LOVE it. Since it is so inexpensive we usually do this more than once in the season.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Our biggest holiday tradition has nothing at all to do with food, we go into NYC a few days before Christmas and fill up on the vibe of the city and usually stop in to see The American Museum of Natural History & the Planetarium.

We do gingerbread houses as a family here Thanksgiving weekend but I would think you could make a box house centerpiece that follows the same idea. All you and the kids would have to do would be collect some interesting sized boxes and paint them. Once they are dry glue as many decorations to it as you like to make a non gingerbread city. In my house collecting the decorations is as much fun as the decorating.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Do you have a YMCA that you can join or already belong to?
Maybe a fun day of swimming in the middle of winter would be great!

Also, we get the 100 calorie popcorn bags for DD. She gets to feel like she's eating the whole bag when its really a little one and much fewer calories than the big, butter loaded ones.

Hmm, trying to think. Maybe pretzels dipped in dark chocolate. This would be healthier and still a treat. You can get the big rods and just dip them half way in.

 

[NHdisneylover]

This is HEALTHY food related:

The last few Tahnksgivings my kids have made a "veggie" turkey from an idea we saw in Family Fun magazie. The use a honey dew melon with the base slices off (to keep it stable) as a "body" We attach a whole pear (upside down) to the fron with pieces of wodden skewers for the head and press in cloves or raisins for the eyes. Add a pieces of bell pepper for the gobble. Then they fill little and big skewers with a bunch of colorful fruit and veggie chunks (cherry tomotoes, apple chunks, grapes, pieces of melon, pieces of bell pepper, etc.) and push the big skewers into the back fanned out as a tail and the smaller ones on the sides for wings. They alwasy have fun making it and they fill up on produce as they work so they gorge less on the "bad" stuff later in the day. I'll try to find a photo so you can visual it. . .

 

[Trish Bessette]

For treat ideas you can always do a veggie platter and do you have a Michael's Craft Store by you? They have a package of 4 very small Christmas cookie cutters (think 1 1/2 inch size). You can use them to cut shapes out of different cheeses, or even slices of cucumbers to make the healthy snack fun. You can use regular cookie cutters to cut shapes out of jello which is fun and not full of calories. Again using the cookie cutters you can make sandwiches cutting the bread to the different holiday shapes. Easy ideas but bring fun to the food

 

[paintnolish]

What about going to the local zoo? Even the smaller ones usually have some Xmas related decor and activities.