With Children’s Day just around the corner on in New Zealand, we thought you might appreciate some awesome ideas on how to celebrate this special day with your precious little ones.
This year for Children’s Day, as well as recognising your own little cherub, why not spread the love to other children in your community?
In the process you’ll be sharing an important message with your child about the value of all children and the spirit of giving.
23 Super Ideas to Celebrate Children’s Day
1. Attend a free Children’s Day event. Children’s Day needn’t be expensive – there are 100s of events happening throughout the country. To find out an event happening near you check out the Children’s Day website.
2. Have a dress up in the Children’s Day theme. Then go and try something out as a family, all dressed up, for the ‘first’ time together. First mudslide together, first family paintball challenge, first high tea, or first Pick Your Own blueberries mission. Make sure you take some fun silly photos to hang in the children’s bedrooms.
3. Have a surprise picnic at the local park or at the beach, or lake, and pack your child’s favourite picnic food, some fun activities like a ball or Frisbee to throw around together.
4. Have a Children’s Day disco. Put on some fun dance music and teach your child some funky moves – and get them to teach you some new moves too. You could even decorate the disco room with fairy lights or homemade decorations.
5. Make a cake together – Get your child to decide what flavour and make a cake to celebrate all the children of the world, teaching them about different cultures and countries. If you are not a ‘baker’ make some fairy bread or decorate some pre-made cupcakes. It is all about the process of having fun together, not the end product.
6. Have a pretend power cut and decorate the house with candles. You could play with torches and tell stories in the dark. You could even adventure around the house and pretend that you are exploring in a cave.
7. Have a water fight outside with water guns, balloons, cups and buckets to have your children squealing with laughter.
8. Go exploring in the garden to make your own Garden Fairy. Gather leaves and flowers from your garden and decorate a Footsteps Fairy template together to create a pretty work of art. Check out the Happiness is Homemade website to learn how to make your own Garden Fairy.
9. Go on a camping trip in your back yard, or even make a hut inside to camp in over night. You can play make believe and pretend you are camping in the jungle and there are lots of animals living all around your tent.
10. Share a fun activity from your childhood like ‘elastics’ or knucklebones, or hunt down your own favourite early childhood book or movie and relive the fun with your child explaining a bit about your childhood.
11. Check out free community events in your community. Also check out the official Children’s Day Facebook page for more events.
12. Organise a neighbourhood picnic with your children and get to know other families in your community. You could do a letterbox drop or create a Facebook event, and meet in your local park. This brings back that sense of community and enables your children to make friends in their own neighbourhood. Community support is important and it embraces the concept of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.
13. Involve your children in donating some of their good quality toys to a community group such as the Salvation Army or Women’s Refuge. Let them choose some toys and buy a new one or two if you can afford it, and go with them to donate. This instills the values of caring for other children and giving to others.
14. Sell some homemade baking and donate the profits to a children’s charity such as KidsCan or your local children’s hospital. Involve your child in baking the goods, choosing the charity and giving the donation.
15. Make some cards for your children to give to their friends at playgroup or school using their own artwork or handprints.
16. Plant a tree for your baby and watch it grow with your child. It will be their own special tree.
17. Start a family tradition of taking a photo of your child every Children’s Day, starting with this year and then every year after. Add the photo to the wall each year to celebrate change and growth.
18. Have a family BBQ for all the young children in the family. Turn it into an awards night with special certificates for all the children. Each one would be unique depending on their own strengths and what makes them your little treasure.
19. Have a family movie night with your own home movies, perhaps of your child’s past birthdays or Christmas, and enjoy the memories together.
20. Keeping your little treasures safe; not only on Children’s Day but through the year. To keep your little treasure safe, enrol in a first aid course, make up a survival kit and check all your smoke alarms. Practise a fire drill together.
21. Write a letter to your child about what makes them your special treasure, and date it and keep it in a treasure box for them. Each year you could add a photo, memento or new letter. What an amazing gift this will be when they are older!
22. Give each child in the family their own special time. One on one time with each child helps them to feel special. Take just one child on an outing with you. It doesn’t need to cost money, it could be a walk around the duck pond followed by an ice cream or an afternoon at the beach.
23. Let your child be the little Prince or Princess for the day. Make a crown together and let them lead the day with their choice of breakfast, outing, activity and dinner.
What is your family going to do to celebrate Children’s Day? Remember that the word ‘love’ is spelt T.I.M.E, and the best way to spend Children’s Day is by spending the day together doing fun free activities.
For more ideas, check out our Children’s Day article and 15 treasured Children’s Day ideas.
