With many of us in Tier 4 this Christmas and very many more being encouraged to stay home for Christmas, staying local and meeting a small number of friends and family only on Christmas Day itself, a lot of us are looking for alternative ways to celebrate Christmas in 2020. In 2020, Virtual Christmas options are a great way to keep family and friends connected and help avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation during December.
If you are looking for virtual ways to celebrate Christmas with your family over Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other online video conferencing tools, here are ten ways to help you celebrate Christmas remotely when you can’t physically be together.
- A virtual pub quiz – Gather your friends and family together on Zoom for a festive pub quiz. There are lots of great resources online to download ready made quizzes, or you could even create your own – tailoring your questions to the age of your audience or sticking to a 2020 theme,
- Virtual Bingo – whether its picture bingo, traditional number bingo, or whether you want to get down the bingo ball roller from the loft and practice your legs eleven and two fat ladies calls, bingo is something that the whole family, young and old can enjoy together and takes very little mental load (compared to the quiz which will be slightly more taxing)
- Virtual Santas – With many physical events being cancelled this year, the kids may be desperate to see Father Christmas. With many of the traditional grottos cancelled, more and more companies are offering Virtual Santa experiences where you can have a short slot chatting to Father Christmas online from the comfort of your own sofa. The children will still get to experience the magic of telling Father Christmas what they would like to discover under the tree on Christmas morning, and you get the joy of seeing their little faces light up too.
- He’s behind you!! The theatres and concert halls may be closed this Christmas, but you can still enjoy all the fun of a pantomime, with many local theatres streaming their pantos online. Grab a big pack of popcorn and pop an ice cream tub in the freezer ready for the interval – the laughs and slapstick comedy of the panto is something that we could all do with to cheer us up this year, whilst also supporting the arts who need our help now more than ever.
- Christmas Virtual Scavenger Hunt – This one can be a right laugh – create a list of items that can be found around the home, and one person play host. The item is announced and participants have 60 seconds to find the item and return to their screen or they are out. The winner is the person who manages to collect all items within the time frame. You can go easy or challenging here -from Christmas decorations and DVDs to ugly paintings and the worlds worst mug. Sure to raise some laughs (and it’s a great way to get a bit active and increase your daily step count too, just watch the stairs after a few beers!)
- Christmas Light Trails – this year, many more people have dressed their homes with lights, decorations and inflatables to bring a bit of festive cheer, with many local schools creating maps for children to follow. If you prefer your Chrismas to be a bit more active, this is a lovely way to spread a bit of Christmas cheer without spending a penny. It also gets everyone up out and away from the screens for a while too.
- Talking of Christmas spirit, this year we are taking part in the Christmas Eve Jingle on Christmas Eve. What started as a local Harrogate campaign has now spread nationally, with families being encouraged to stand outside on their drives and chime jingle bells to share Christmas spirit and build a sense of community. I know that this Christmas will be incredibly emotional for many, and this is such a lovely reminder that no one is truly alone this Christmas, even when we can’t physically be together.
- Christmas Virtual Family Fortunes – I absolutely loved the Family Fortunes game show as a child, and this works really well over Zoom or Microsoft teams, putting family members into two teams to battle it out. Lucy from Real Mum Reviews has created a fab downloadable Family Fortunes game which is a great place to start.
- Virtual Christmas Dinner – Whilst you might not be able to physically share the food (unless you fancy doing a drop and go service), getting the laptops out on the dinner table and eating ‘together’ can still have a huge amount of positives for those who would otherwise be spending Christmas alone. Conversation, laughter and seeing the kids excited faces on Christmas day can really help lift your relatives spirits.
- Virtual Present Opening – For those that really love seeing people open their presents and gauging their reactions, why not open presents over video call? People can take it in turns to open a gift and if you are doing a secret santa share, you can even try and guess the recipient too!
Whatever your plans are for Christmas – please stay safe. Lets hope that we can all have an alternative Oz style Christmas bbq in the Summer instead. We will be together again – for now we just need to ride it out and keep doing what we can to show our loved ones that we care.
A Merry Christmas from me to you.
xxx