Reply to Christmas with an only child teen, how to keep it festive?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You have to leave the house at this age

So no baking unless they like baking.

You might have to throw some money at this. Maybe some shows. Take them and a friend to something

[/quote]

This. At this age they have real preferences and activities aren't fun just because they are "holiday" or they get to do it with mom.

We go to the movies a lot, go see the Nutcracker (DD does ballet and is still into this), go out to eat. We try to hit all our favorite restaurants during the break. Same with favorite take out. Yes to time with other families but also we don't force that -- we know a few other families with onlies and we'll do stuff with them or with families from school as it comes up.

I actually disagree with the PP that doing stuff just the 3 of us feels "lonely" this time of year. I think it's a mindset. I like doing stuff just the 3 of us. But the key is to do stuff DD actually likes doing and not to do "forced family fun." That's not just a holiday thing, it's year round. Larger families can get away with that more but with just one kid, you need that kid's buy in.

Whenever DD suggest something holiday-related, I try to make it happen. She suggested we get ugly Christmas sweaters one year, so we did (even though neither her dad nor I would ever choose that). She wanted to watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in order last years, so we did that and now it's tradition.

I have actually liked as she's gotten older how she determines more of what we do and it takes the pressure off just to make "Holiday magic." We treat it like we would any vacation.[/quote]

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