As you get ready for winter holiday gatherings this year, it can help to discuss expectations with kids — especially since holidays and get-togethers usually mean changes in routine. Plus, with kids home from school during winter break, it’s a great time to connect with them and engage in conversations about all sorts of topics.
These holiday-themed questions will give you the perfect conversation starters, and help you teach your kids about everything from manners to different cultural traditions.
Questions to help prepare kids for holiday gatherings
Between all the commotion, the break from your normal routine, and the influx of new people, holiday gatherings can be overwhelming for anyone…especially kids!
Before your next holiday party, ask your kid these 5 questions to help mentally prepare them for what to expect and how to behave:
- What are some different ways we can say “hello” to others if you don’t feel like hugging or kissing?
- If someone offers you food that you don’t want, what’s a good way to let them know you’d rather not eat it?
- When you have lots of people in one place, it can be hard to get space if you feel overwhelmed. What’s a way you can get some space if you need it during a holiday gathering?
- Using good manners helps the people around us feel respected. What are some examples of good manners you can use at a holiday gathering?
- Not all families have the same rules or do things the same way. What’s one unique holiday tradition in your family? What do you think it would be like to try another family’s holiday traditions one year instead?
Questions for kids about holidays around the world
Lots of fun and meaningful holidays happen in many different cultures during this time of year! Kids might even celebrate the same holiday in very different ways depending on where in the world they live.
These 5 questions will get your kids thinking about what it would be like to be part of another culture during the winter holidays:
- Jewish families celebrate Hanukkah around this time of the year. During this eight-day-long celebration, kids play a game called Dreidel, using a spinning toy and coins or pieces of candy as prizes! What’s a game you like to play during the winter holidays?
- During Christmastime in England, kids and their families gather together to sing Christmas carols. If you went caroling in your town, where would you go and what song would you sing?
- In Italy, kids leave out stockings for La Befana, or “the Christmas witch,” the night before January 6, a day known as Epiphany in some Christian cultures. In the morning, they find the stockings filled with gifts! If you were La Befana, what gifts would you leave for the kids in your town?
- Some Black families in the United States celebrate Kwanzaa between December 26 and January 1. One tradition lots of folks practice during this holiday is giving handmade gifts to their loved ones. If you made a gift for someone by hand, what would you make? What materials would you need?
- In Central America, many families celebrate a Christian holiday called Las Posadas from December 16 through December 24. Each evening, a child dressed like an angel leads a procession through the streets of their town. If you had that big job, what route would you take through your town, and what would your angel costume look like?
Questions to ask kids to avoid disappointed gift reactions
Kids generally say what they feel, and it probably won’t occur to them that Aunt Tillie spent a long time knitting that sweater when they open the box and see it’s not the toy they wanted.
Thinking about possible feelings ahead of time can take the intensity out of the emotion in the moment. Ahead of any gift-receiving occasions, asking questions like these can help your child prepare in advance for the range of emotions they might experience, and think about gratitude in new ways:
- Who’s someone you’re really excited to see?
- What are you expecting at this gathering/gift exchange/party?
- What do you think it would feel like if you don’t get the XYZ you asked for?
- What will you do if you receive a gift you don’t want?
- I wonder how you might feel if your cousin got something YOU really wanted? What do you think you would do?
- A gift is a thought — whether it’s big or little, expensive or homemade, or even something you don’t want, it means someone was thinking of you! What are some thoughts people have when they get you a gift?
