Christmas in July - Ideas to get you started

Well, it’s July. A long way from Christmas and the holidays. And with all the lockdowns we have been having lately we thought it was time to have some fun. So this year we are celebrating Christmas in July. Here are some easy ways you can celebrate too.

Bake Gingerbread

This is the easiest to start with because, firstly it's cold outside so we are craving all the warm baked goods. And two, gingerbread keeps the kids busy for both baking and for decorating. Here is our favourite recipe. We have been using this one for years and it has always made great tasting gingerbread. But if you think you’ve found a better recipe, send it our way. We’ll happily test it as we love a good excuse to do some baking and eat all of the biscuits.

Dress ups

I don’t know about you, but we have pajamas, T-shirts, Santa hats and reindeer ears that spend 11 months of the year packed away. Here is the chance to get them out. I put the kids Santa hats and reindeer headbands into the dress up box this week and PJ is already wearing them about the house. I am thinking that we might have a dress up fashion parade and I’ll let the boys come up with their best Christmas themed outfits and they can do a parade on Instagram 😊

Movie marathon

Friday nights are pizza and family movie night in this house. So next week as part of our Christmas in July we are going to be watching Polar Express. Freddy loved it over the Christmas break and I’m hoping that six months on PJ might sit still enough to actually watch a little. What’s your favourite Christmas movie for little ones? So far, they have found Home Alone to scary…

Listen to Christmas carols

By far the easiest, Spotify has some amazing Christmas playlists so we have car sing-a-longs. I also put carols on our speaker when the boys were playing yesterday and I could see them bopping along. We also listen when we are doing our gingerbread baking and Christmas decoration making.

Make decorations

Speaking of Christmas decoration making this is one recipe you must try. A friend introduced me to it last Christmas. It is better than salt dough because it doesn’t go moldy and gross so it can last for years. Make up a batch of this dough using the recipe here, you can also add fragrant oils, glitter etc to really go all out. Then go crazy with the cookie cutters (make sure you roll it quite thick), and use household items to make great patterns e.g forks, lace doilies, leaves, play dough tools. Don’t forget to punch a hole so they can be used on the tree or as gift tags. These can be dried in the oven on a very low temp (you don’t want them to go brown) or air dried over a few days. Then you can paint or leave plain. We are making some now which we are going to put aside to add to Birthday presents for the rest of the year 😊. If you have  go at this make sure you tag us. We’d love to see your beautiful designs.

And that’s it. The best part about celebrating Christmas in July in Australia is getting to do all the cozy winter Christmas activities that it is too hot for in December.