CREATING TRADITIONS WITH HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES
From trains to teas, it seems as San Diego is back on lockdown many annual events have been cancelled. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get into the Christmas spirit, and even meet Santa! We loaded the car and headed to Lake Arrowhead, for a day trip to SkyPark Santa’s Village! From archery to biking, ice skating to zip lines, the whole family can be active outdoors. Celebrating its 65th Anniversary SkyPark has made adaptions to sanitize an be socially distanced without compromising on all the magic. Everything needs a reservation so we recommend doing what you can online before you arrive and then once you get into the village, select all the areas you want to hit up and then go reserve times… this also allows for the day to be paced and structured (which we love in our family!). Santa’s Village is open through January 10th
We love Christmas lights and with the weather getting cooler, a drive-thru light experience is a great holiday activity. Our families had a great time at Tanaka Farms Hikari Festival of Lights. The 30-acre farm has been transformed with twinkling lights on tractors, scarecrows Christmas trees and more. Hikari loosely translated means LIGHT/SHINE in Japanese. We loved rocking out to Christmas music and taking in all the beautiful displays. The one mile route will take you about 30-45 minutes and finished with a drive-by chat with Santa. The kids loved chatting with him. If you are looking for socially-distant photos with Santa, make sure to check out the Wagon Rides during the day. Make sure to use CODE: FAMILY10 for a discount by December 5th.
Then you can stop by their Holiday Market for Christmas trees, decor and more. The Christmas trees are cut fresh from Oregon and shipped immediately to Tanaka Farms. It was easy to select a tree because they are displayed on stands so you can see the true fullness and height. The staff were incredibly helpful and can even secure the tree to your car.
If taking those traditional cheerful holiday photos with the family is exactly what you don’t feel like doing, there’s now an alternative! The Grinch’s Grotto, an imaginative take on holiday photo shoots that will give you a fun way to show off a bit of your grumpiness, especially those who are ready for 2020 to come to a close.
Complete with a burlap sack full of presents, a Grinch stylized holiday tree and a backlit fireplace with hanging stockings just as depicted in the book, this true-to-form experience will place your family inside the classic tale in one of the most authentic ways possible. Plus you can pick a sign with your choice of slogans to be placed in the photo with the Grinch. Think along the lines of “You’re a mean one, 2020” or “2020: Stink, Stank, Stunk,” and “2020 – How The Grinch Stole, Well, The Whole Year” but don’t worry some are positive including “The Grinch still can’t steal Christmas!” Reservations are required for this experience at Westfield UTC.
One of our favorite things to do during the holiday season is to read a Christmas-themed book each evening. It is a great way to wind down the day. Santa Post from Kane Miller is one of our favorites. Santa gets a letter and needs help solving what it says. As you read, you open different letters from the elves, Mr. Polar Bear, the Chief Reindeer and more. Another favorite is It’s Christmastime. It comes with 15 reusable stickers that you can use as you read the story. We love how it sparks creativity as the kids read. We also love giving books as gifts.
Whether you are reading your favorite Christmas book or watching a classic Christmas movie, you have to get cozy in Christmas pajamas. We love Hanna Andersson family matching pajamas! From Gnomes and Deers, Stripes and even your favorite characters, the premium organic cotton makes them so soft that we just want to wear them all day. We also 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. They also make for a great holiday photo outfit. And yes, we love any excuse to family match and wear pajamas all day long!
TRACK SANTA IN THE SKY & LETTERS TO ST. NICK
How does Santa find your house? By the stars of course! We all know that Jolly St. Nick lives in the North Pole and high overhead he see Polaris (also known as The North Star). As he travels south the starry sky shifts slowly with new southern stars coming into view. You can countdown the nights of December and discover constellations (and maybe even spot Santa or the reindeer) with a GeoSafari Omega Refractor Telescope. With it you can explore the faraway wonders of space, from the Moon’s craters to Saturn’s dazzling rings and even deep-sky phenomena like star clusters and nebulae!
As Santa gets closer you may be able to spot him with your GeoSafari Jr. Kidnoculars and Kidnoculars Extreme. They are focus free, easy for kids to see, and hear, perfect for science exploration. Plus Educational Insights has some great FREE Astronomy Worksheets that you can print for quizs and facts about the solar system.
We are helping our children learn to read and write this year and writing letters to Santa and our family have been helpful for motivation. We love using Educational Insights Hot Dots to help build the foundation to learning how to read and write. Hot Dots are great because kids can practice a lesson on their own. When they get the correct answer it makes a noise and when the answer is incorrect, it makes a different noise. As working parents, we use Hot Dots quite a bit for independent work time. The Pete the Cat series is great because the kids love Pete and want to do the different lessons. On the Educational Insights site, there are lots of free printables, many of which use are based off the Hot Dots worksheets. So you can try them out and see how your student respon
We love when learning feels like a game. Educational Insights Sentence Building Dominoes give hands-on sentence-building practice which is perfect for notifying St. Nick of all the requested gifts. There are 114 double-sided, color-coded dominoes featuring nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and punctuation marks. We also love the Phonics Dominoes Blends for added fun.
Once your letter is complete, families can either email their letters to Santa or stop by The Big Red Mailbox in Piazza della Famiglia in Little Italy to drop off them off in person. Letters being dropped off in-person will have to be postmarked by December 14th. Santa has also gone digital! Families will be able to email their letters (and you can even attach drawings or handwritten letters too) directly to Santa at Letters@SantaInLittleItalySD.com
UNIQUE GIFTS UNDER THE TREE
If you are looking for a great screen-free option, we love the sensory kits from Young, Wild & Friedman. Each kit comes with three different play doughs and different accessories/pieces to build and play with and come in a durable container. Our kids played for hours making Christmas trees and a snowman. We love the Nativity set and plan on using it as we talk about the meaning of Christmas. This is a great option especially if you have a Nativity set in the house that kids can’t touch. This gives them the opportunity to tell the story through their lens. From holiday-themed sensory kits to space, mermaids even lemonade stands, the kits change each season.
We love the story of how Young Wild & Friedman was started. One of their children was diagnosed with a speech disorder coupled with severe anxiety. Their doctor recommended incorporating more sensory play opportunities into their daily routine, as it may help calm anxiety and encourage language development. When mom, Julie started making her own play dough started making play dough and assembling sensory bins, she saw first-hand how sensory experiences helped calm her child’s frustrations.
Our girls love bows! so when we found out our favorite family-owned brand Milledux based in Denmark had a Hair Accessory Advent Calendar we immediately knew it had to be the way we counted down to Christmas this year. Twenty-four little boxes fill the beautiful box and each has a unique bow, barrette or tie. There is a sliver or gold option and we absolutely love all the details… besides the rich colors, we are smitten with the Christmas tree and sparkly present alligator clips. It’s the gift that delivers joy every day, and then continues to bring happiness throughout the year every time you finish off your outfit.
Our kids love bath balms and Musee bath balms make a great stocking stuffer. They smell so good and they leave our skin feeling so soft. Not only are their bath balms handmade in the USA with ethically sourced, natural ingredients, their bath balms are cruelty-free, paraben-free and sulfate-free and safe for all skin types. Their Winter Wonderland Gift set comes with six bath balms and while kids soak a wooden figure surprise to play with later. They also have individual balms for kids and adults that make great stocking stuffers.
We also love that they are committed to restoring lives by providing work for vulnerable people in their community. They hire primarily women in recovery, people with disabilities and people who have lived in chronic poverty.
CLEAN CHRISTMAS
We know on all your adventures season you will definitely have your cell phone in hand — to take pictures, shoot video, virtual chat with the family — but did you know a cell phone has 18x more bacteria than a public restroom?! We are mortified too. So we were ecstatic to find PhoneSoap.
The PhoneSoap Pro uses UV lights to sanitize, killing 99.99% of bacteria in just five minutes. PhoneSoap kills microorganisms that hide in crevices where cleaning wipes can’t reach and the larger sanitizing bay fits any size phone and case. Plus you can put anything that will fit in the bay and it will get sanitized too… so we use it for our keys, remotes, credit cards and more!
Oh the weather outside is frightful… the winter months often mean cold and flu season and now with COVID everyone is more cautious about the air they are breathing. Our families have been breathing a little easier with TruSens Air Purifiers. The air purifiers boost protection from airborne viruses, germs and bacteria. We love that they are quiet and small enough that you can move it from room to room or take it with you when you travel if need be. They come with a SensorPod which takes air quality readings and communicates those readings back to the purifier.
From allergies to odors, TruSens Air Purifiers have a variety of filters available too for specialized needs. Allergy & Flu with Anti-viral True HEPA filter captures 99% of airborne allergens and viruses. Pet with special washable cotton prefilter and True HEPA for capturing up to 99.97% of pet dander and help eliminate common pet odors. Odor engineered with True HEPA and high performance carbon pellets to help eliminate cooking and cleaning odors, and reduce VOCs.
Whether you have a real tree or faux, now your home can smell like Evergreen and be completely clean! We love locally owned RxEssentials for all our sanitizing needs. The company was born out of need during COVID by an infectious disease pharmacist who wanted to create effective, safe, and eco-friendly cleaning products. From hand sanitizers to disinfectant sprays and wipes, we love that RxEssentials allows science and nature to provide synergistic antimicrobial effects.
Take their holiday collection scent of Evergreen as an example, the smell is reminiscent of a Christmas tree feeling clean and crisp but because of it’s organic ingredients like lemon, cypress and spruce there are possible health benefits of antibacterial, cough relief, respiratory support, immune support and more — all which are important, especially during cold and flu season, in the middle of a world pandemic.
Perfect for stocking stuffers, we also love that the brand not only gives back but also donates in bulk to local schools and first responders.
Whether you are running errands or picking out the Christmas tree, it is always fun to show your Christmas spirit. We love the personalized and customizable masks from Little Navy. They have so many cute holiday prints and you can even add your child’s name. They have sizes for children and adults. Our kids love matching mom/dad and even the grandparents. These are a great stocking stuffer idea.
