Five Family Fun Activities to Try the Day After Christmas

It's the day after Christmas-the presents are unwrapped, the gingerbread house has been broken into and the kids are still hyped up from the pre-Christmas anticipation. What the heck do you do now?

Traditionally the activity most people do the day after Christmas, also known as Boxing Day, is go shopping. If you're like me, shopping with three kids under five when that's all you've done for the last two months seems most unappealing. In our house, the focus at this time is twofold: finding activities that (a) "bring down" the kids, and (b) don't cost anything (we still have all of those Christmas presents to pay off.)

Here are five activities we do in our house the day after Christmas:

(1) Make decorations for next Christmas: We get a fair amount of Christmas cards each year, which I love. But unless they've been specially made, there really isn't much use hanging onto them. We make cool tree decorations for next year out of old Christmas cards. All you really need are scissors, glue, glitter and different shaped cardboard tubes (such as toilet paper or paper towel rolls or even the cardboard that decorative ribbons are wrapped around.) Not only are the kids entertained for awhile but you're helping the environment by recycling and your tree will look fab next year.

(2) Create bird feeders: Cut a bagel in half (flavor doesn't matter) and spread either peanut butter, margarine or butter on it. Then you can sprinkle nuts, seeds, oats and/or crushed up granola over top of the spread. Once you tie some yarn around the bagel you can take them out and hang them on a tree. You can also hang up those Christmas cookies you've eaten tons of or fruitcake nobody usually eats. Those make great bird treats too. Just be sure to hang them high enough that the neighborhood cats and dogs don't get to them first! (Something we learned the hard way.)