My baby and I were at the playground together with a couple of kids hovering over the small slide. Since the pandemic, kids spend more of their time indoors and after the typhoon hit Cebu, you’d barely see kids around our community due to fallen debris. So after the community clean-up, a lot of the kids were eager to play together.
When I asked them, what’s their parent’s plan for Christmas day, most of them are just staying inside and doing normal everyday stuff. It made me sad because Christmas is really special for kids. I remember growing up in a small town, our Christmas was always the most celebrated holiday of the year. Every kid is out on the street on Christmas day and we bring our own basket, box, big plastic for the Christmas little giveaways. Most homes that have people in them have something to give not just to kids but to anyone who knocks at their door and greets ”Maupay nga Pasko” (Merry Christmas)! Some kids would even do carolings still on Christmas day and others also dance to the music. It is such a wonderful celebration and I truly miss having this.
So, I initiated to plan something for the kids on Christmas day, a mini Christmas party but we had to move it to the day after Christmas because the other four kids of my friend won’t able to make it that night. However, some of the kids were eager to do the secret Santa so we had to do to secret Santa. Good thing I had some extra random gifts because one of the kids didn’t have any more gifts at home, so I gave her one so she can join the second exchange gift party.
All the prices I gave away was from extra gifts that we bought for my baby and we thought to share it with the other kids since he got a lot of gift from us and his grandparents. I also had a ton of candies left over from his trick or treating that I saved when my three brothers come for Christmas but since they could not visit due to crisis in water in our condo and no electricity so I decided to just give all the candies as extra prices.
A party without games is less fun! Thanks to @gerel and my partner for helping come up with some fun games for the kids. One of the moms who joined me in organizing this party also prepared some games. Below are some of the fun games we did:
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Pin the Star
My partner suggested, “Pin the start”. If you are familiar with “Pin the tail on the donkey”, this is one is of our versions of it. Instead of pinning tail, @gerel drew a Christmas tree and we had a star from our Christmas decor that was perfect to stick on the Christmas tree. This is not a game that Filipinos played before and the first time I knew about this game was hen I threw a party for my baby’s 1st birthday party and it’s a very fun game.
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Squid Game (Green Light, Red Light!)
The popular Netflix tv series is definitely a good idea for a survive elimination game!
For the first batch of winners, I set up a basket with mixed candies and one of my friends added some imported chocolates to it. I also did another set of this game with one winner for this game because the kids requested to play another squid game. You can tell that the kids were really loving this game, lol!
The craziest longest line 'ever!
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The longest line
This one is prepared by one of the moms, who recently moved into one of the units at tower 2, Lavele. She asked all the kids to gather and make two groups and make the longest line. The line is supposed to be from anything that they are wearing but the kids started using their own bodies to make the line longer which made the adults laugh so hard. As they say, laughter is the best medicine and this was the ticket that made our day brighter!
Xo, Gil