Indoor Holiday Activities to Do with Your Child This Festive Season

We are surrounded by festive cheer all around. It makes no sense to miss out on your baby’s development with the whole family to help. Activities are an excellent way to do so. Ditch the plain old exercises. Grab your stockings and your kid-friendly eggnog; we have a list of fun activities for holidays that you will want to incorporate into your Christmas to-do list to build your baby’s developmental skills.

Indoor Developmental Activities for the Holidays

This festive season, imbibe the holiday spirit into your baby’s routine with these developmental activities:

Miracle of Red and Green

Let's introduce the baby to color differentiation with this colorful activity. Take two bowls, one red and one green. Now take a few ornaments or clothes, either of a red or green color. Place the items in their respective colored bowls, shake them in front of the baby, and then empty them on the table.
Next, encourage your young one to pick the items in green and put them into the green bowl, and the red things into the red bowl. You can keep shaking one bowl that you want your child to fill and repeat "Green, Green, Green" or "Red, Red, Red." If the baby approaches the wrong bowl, move it backward and encourage her to put it in the right bowl.
Repeat this every day till the baby can play the game correctly on her own, and then introduce other colors like yellow and blue.

Frequency: Every week, at least 3 to 4 times, for a month
Benefits:

Builds understanding of colors
Invokes articulation while sorting

Material Required: Items colored red and green, two bowls.

Fun with Santa

This activity will definitely get you bouts of laughter out of your little one. Here's what you need to do: Get dressed in a Santa's costume and behave silly with the purpose of making your child laugh. Encourage her to imitate you, so she is the one actually making you laugh. You can give your baby a tiny Santa's hat too. Bring her up to the mirror and try to get a giggle out of her. This helps your baby learn not to shy away from being funny.

Frequency: About 3-4 times during the week
Benefits:

Boosts confidence and self-esteem
Reduces shyness

Material Required: Santa's costume or hat

Popcorn Garland Time

Engage your baby in making the popcorn garland for the Christmas tree. Take a thread, a plastic needle and popcorn. Now show your baby how a thread can bind them together in the right order, and let the baby hold your hand as they watch you do the same again. Remember not to leave your child alone with this. Make sure they do the activity with your help. This is a very good exercise for fine hand-eye coordination and handling items of different sizes.

Frequency: Once a day for 2-3 weeks
Benefits:

Great for hand-finger-eye coordination
Improves perseverance and concentration

Material Required: Popcorn, thread, plastic needle

The Eggnog Pour

Take two plastic glasses, one with kid-friendly eggnog in it. Next, show your baby how he can transfer the liquid from one glass to another, and then help him do the same. Slowly, your baby should catch up and try to do it by himself. Be careful that the baby does not slip on any spilled drink. A tip: the best time to do this is before bath time.

Frequency: Once a day for a week
Benefits:

Improves hand balance and coordination
Introduces dealing with liquids

Material Required: Two glasses, eggnog

Choosing Ornaments

Toddlers at 17 months can identify, if not speak clearly, various objects. This is an amazing activity you can incorporate during the day while decorating the tree to engage your little one in making choices.
To start with, ask her which ornaments she wants you to pick, like a nutcracker or a peppermint stick. Wait for her to point and vocalize the name of the item. If she does not, emphasize each choice again and wait. The same way, if you are giving her her favorite ornament, ask her what item she wants and let her say the name to get it. Try to include your child to speak her preferences in as many daily activities as you can; this will improve her communication confidence.

Frequency: Try to make this part of your daily routine
Benefits:

Invokes a sense of independence and self-thinking
Builds confidence in expressing one's own preferences

Material Required: Christmas ornaments

Dress up with Christmas Jammies

We are sure you have your child's Christmas jammies ready to be worn on Christmas Eve. Why not allow your child to choose the clothes he wants to put on first? Will it be the reindeer pajamas or the winter blue ones? Encourage him to help dress by sticking out the arms for the top or the foot for the pants. When you ask him to dress, he needs to pay attention, follow instructions, and develop the ability to keep trying. This is a good step towards taking care of himself and being independent.

Frequency: Make this part of your daily routine
Benefits:

Builds confidence and self-esteem
Facilitates speech development
Enables a cooperative environment

Material Required: Baby's clothes

Santa’s Little Helper

No matter what household chores you are doing this holiday season, take your little one along and explain to him the process and benefits of them. When you are dusting, show him the places where dust has accumulated and what you are about to do. Similarly, for other household chores like washing, making the bed, folding clothes, etc., take him along and also let him help you if interested.

Frequency: Make this part of your daily routine
Benefits:

Improves understanding of household works
Understanding of the environment
Reduces the abuse of substances

Material Required: Nothing, just you and your little one

Cookie Stacking

Now the story of keeping cookies and a glass of milk for Santa is age-old. Present a plate of cookies to your child and ask her to stack them. Show her how to do so, once or twice, until she gets it.
While doing this activity, she will learn that objects with different weights, thicknesses and sizes behave differently and have to be placed in a certain pattern, unlike the playing cubes. The aim here is to introduce the science behind balancing in a practical manner.

Frequency: About 3-4 times during the week
Benefits:

Invokes creative thinking
Articulation around balancing mechanisms

Material Required: Cookies

You can inculcate so many more activities into your child's routine with the help of your family members to ensure that your baby is entertained and not overstimulated this holiday. BabyG has an ensemble of age-appropriate developmental activities to help you with the same. Have fun with these fun activities for holidays in the meantime, Happy Parenting!