Is there a special event coming up, and you want to do something special to celebrate as a family? Here are 5 ways to make your own attractions at home without spending a penny and yet have loads of family fun!!
D.I.Y carnival
It’s simple yet fun to make your own carnival, all you need to do is to follow these steps.
Prize board- Hunt around your house for various small objects like cute pencils and erasers, (or decorate your own), small food packets like Ramen or chocolate, small Kinder- egg toys or other small things that your folks will have most likely to have forgotten about! If you have money, get some snacks from your school canteen or your downstairs Bakala. Take a small soft- board or a board of Styrofoam and pin all your prizes onto it. You officially have an attractive prize- board for all your games!
Lucky dip- Take an old tub or bin and fill it with shawls or cloth. After that, stuff and hide lots of goodies like snacks or toys inside. Your family will have lots of fun pulling out goodies from your lucky dip!!
Ring toss- Its not hard to make at all! Stick cardboard rolls or plastic bottles on a big piece of cardboard. Mark points for each one. You can cut cardboard rings or those toy plastic baby toy rings. Now try your hand at ring- tossing!
Ball throw- This is less challenging than the ring- toss and more appropriate for younger children. All you need to do is to cut a big hole in the center of a cereal box. Cover the box with gift- wrapper or carnival themed color paper like red and yellow. Fill it with stones or something heavy to make the box stand upright. Find a small toy ball and practice your aim!
The wheel of fortune- My sister made a wheel of fortune virtually and displayed it on TV, but you can make your own out of cardboard. Cut a big cardboard circle and cover it with white paper. Draw something like this on it –
In each triangle, write things like “You won a prize”, “You won a BIG prize”, “You get no prize” etc. next, pin it from the center to a softboard and tape a small arrow to the top or the side. If it doesn’t spin properly, try loosening the pin or sticking on thicker cardboard. Your Wheel of fortune is ready!
You have made a wonderful carnival! If you want to make tickets too, draw lots of ticket in a line and cut them together and not separately. Then poke holes with a pin or needle between each ticket and tear it like the real ones. You can also use real money or monopoly money.
Movie theatre
How about making a simple movie night special with real theater vibes? Here’s how!
Make lots of microwave popcorn and fill it into small paper bags. Give it to each family member as they pass along.
Turn off all the lights and turn up the volume of your TV a little higher. Many Smart TV’s have a setting called “Surround sound”. This makes the volume like a real theatre.
If it gets too dark, light up a few candles around to make the lighting subtle, yet enough.
If you want your popcorn to be tastier, you can drizzle melted chocolate or Nuttela to make gourmet dessert popcorn.
Grab a blanket to snuggle to make the couch cozier. Now sit back, grab a popcorn bag and enjoy the show!!
Competitions
How about spicing things up a bit and organizing a competition for your family? It can be a bottle cap collecting competition, a photo taking competition or even a baking competition! Design flyers for the competition you are doing and stick them on the fridge or a wall. If it is something like a photo taking competition, make a PowerPoint presentation and put all the entries in and announce the winners in the end. For something like a bottle cap collecting competition, make a list of prizes with the number or bottle caps collected. For example-
10 bottle caps- 5 toffees
20 bottle caps- A cute pencil and eraser
30 bottle caps- A glittery pencil pouch
And so on.
When I had a Bottle cap collecting competition, the contestants were my mom, dad and sister. My sister made things interesting by trying to “borrow” the caps from my parents. It was so funny to see them hiding the bottle caps from her. After many days of collecting, hiding and cap-less bottles, the winner was of course! my sister.
So put out your flyer, gather your contestants, and let the competition begin!!
Spa day
My mom did this for me once, and when I was done, I felt so pampered that I couldn’t even get up!! For all the mothers out there, PLEASE try this for your kids because this is a MUST.
First, set up a chair and put a bucket below. Fill the bucket a bit with water, a little less than half of the bucket. Add soap in it for your child to put her feet in.
For a face mask, crush papaya and apply. The high-water content in papaya makes it an excellent natural moisturizer.
Invite your child to come with a bathrobe and a shower-cap. For a spa room ambience, turn off the lights, open the window a little (if it is daytime) and light up candles. So, sit back, dip your feet in the water and enjoy your home-made spa.
Christmas carols
If you want to do something special for your family other than presents, then this is the one for you!
My sister and I wore red clothes and Santa hats and sang carols for my mom and dad and then for my dear grandparents in the very next room when we all lived together! After the songs we handed out toffee, chocolate or candy.
Team up with another friend or family member to sing carols. If you have a costume, why not dress up as Santa itself! Decide on a few Christmas songs. A few of my favorites are-
“White Christmas”
“Oh, Holy night”
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”
“Carol of the bells”
“Jingle bell rock”
So, lets start Rocking around the Christmas tree and start caroling!!