From train rides and ballets to hosting and parties, the holiday season is chocked full of events and Family Entourage is here with ways to elevate your holiday activities. Well this is fun, you’re taking the segment to the train tracks!
ALL ABOARD! POLAR EXPRESS
With TWO locations in North Carolina — North Carolina Transportation Museum (Spencer, NC) and one at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (Bryson City, NC) and nearly 40 more locations across the country (click here) the Polar Express is a big hit for families during the holiday season. One of the aspects that really brings the train ride to life is outfitting your entire family in matching pajamas.. and even better if on theme with a Polar Express print.
Of course we have to outfit our entire family, and extended family in matching pajamas just as the children in the classic children’s book with the same name, The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg, are in their jammies. Hanna Andersson is our go to for family matching pajamas. From Gnomes and Deers, Stripes and even your favorite characters, we love Hanna Andersson pajamas because not only can the entire family match, but the quality makes them easy to pass down to siblings and cousins. The premium organic cotton makes them so soft that we just want to wear them all day. From traditional Christmas, to favorite characters, or patterns… this is a trend we are thrilled has gotten bigger and bigger each year.
BRING THE NUTCRACKER HOME
Holiday performances or specifically the Nutcracker tops the list of activities for many families… we’re sharing how to bring the famous ballet home through beautiful and playful home decor from Rifle Paper Company — and it’s on theme.
Whether you’re hosting guests, or baking for fun.. serving trays, mugs, matching aprons and more, all lend themselves to creating a Nutcracker-inspired atmosphere. You can view the whole Nutcracker collection and find what best suits your occasion.
KEEP KIDS BUSY DURING BREAK
Whether it’s traveling to your activity or your kids are home during break and mentioning the b-word — yep “bored,” we always try and keep a couple of new activities on hand to keep things fresh.
One of our favorites is the new Wixels sets from Crayola. Inexpensive and reusable — two key words! — innovative way to do pixel art while teaching concentration and patience in a creative way. Once done can show off masterpieces and display in house too. These are great to put in the bag when you go to a restaurant, travel on the plane, or just need some non-screen activities. Wixels also make a great stocking stuffer.
TURN MEMORIES INTO KEEPSAKES
Whatever family activities you enjoy, the best part is being together and you want to make sure to capture all the joy, and not just have it live on your phone! From your annual family Christmas cards to photobooks and more, Mixbook makes it so simple to turn our photos into keepsakes.
Mixbook Studio allows for easy templates, design and also you can choose from AI-generated captions that speak to your photos and the story they tell, so you can say more while writing less. Plus you can let your photos shine with 150+ new eye-catching two-page spreads and it’s super easy to instantly change every page of your photo book to a new theme right inside your project.
Check out Mixbook’s Holiday Gift Guide where you can make flat-lay books, calendars, photo cards (yes, make sure your gorgeous family photo shoot actually makes it to the cover of your holiday card this year) and any other creative angle from recipe books to elementary art books. Mixbook customer service is always available and her quality is above all!
