The Importance of Family Time During the Holidays

While holidays and family gatherings are intended to be a fun and special time, sometimes they can unfortunately be a stressful experience. Perhaps now is the time to change things up and try something new to make this holiday season the best one yet. For those who have lost a loved one, the holiday time can be an especially tough time, but that’s exactly why it’s more important than ever to support each other and be together. Here are some useful tips to make spending time with family something you’ll surely look forward to.

Why Spending Time with Family is Important

It’s easy to convince yourself that you should work more and more. But if you’ve ever thought to yourself that working and earning money is more valuable than spending time with family, you are very mistaken. Spending time with family is the most precious thing in the world, and here’s why.

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Bonding Time

What family means has shifted over the years, but one thing that will always remain is the importance of family.

Family time is the time when your children learn how to deal with all kinds of life situations, and where they learn innumerable lessons. Without this crucial time, your children can be left very lost. Family time is something that needs to be made and blocked into your schedules, as busy as they may be.

Why is Family Time Important?

If you are still doubting the importance of family time, here are some valuable points to consider.

1. Bonding with Family

Everyone needs to have a sense of belonging, feeling as though they have a safe place that they can trust. Children often join gangs to feel as though they are part of something similar to a family. By having a strong family bond, it’s likely to prevent them from getting involved in dangerous activities and looking for that connection elsewhere.

2. Talk and Listen

We also all need a place where we can talk openly and share our feelings, and that’s what a family is for. Talking to your kids or younger siblings can help prevent them from getting involved in dangerous activities and succumbing to peer pressure.

3. Teaching Your Kids Valuable Lessons

As a parent or older sibling, it’s your responsibility to teach your children and family right from wrong. And if they don’t learn this at home, they will learn it somewhere else, perhaps not in the way you would have liked them to.

4. Show Affection

Affection is shown differently by everyone. For some it means holding hands, others giving hugs, and sometimes it just means doing a nice gesture. Spending time with family gives everyone the chance to express their affection.

In fact, it’s been found that teenagers who are shown affection are more likely to do better in school compared to those that don’t receive this type of family attention.

5. Family Traditions

Family values come from spending time with family. Children copy what they see at home. If a parent is not around, then that’s exactly what they will learn to do when they have their own children. Spending time with family as much as possible can help develop positive family values.

6. Accept Each Other

Family time is crucial in order to learn how to accept each other’s differences, and appreciate each family member for their unique qualities.

7. Share Chores

Sharing chores between family members is a way for children to learn to fend for themselves in a healthy, safe way. It establishes the fact that you are a family, and that you share a common goal that you need to work together in order to reach.

8. Connect with Your Children

It’s been found that when parents get involved in their children’s studies, it helps them get better grades, and increases their chances of graduating, as well as their chances to attend higher education. Even a sibling or cousin helping if the parent isn’t around can also be highly beneficial.

It’s also been found that parental involvement encourages children to have more positive attitudes towards learning. It can be as simple as reading a bedtime story, checking homework or even asking your child how their day was.

9. Building Self-Esteem

Spending time with family helps children gain a greater sense of self-worth. Spending time with family doesn’t have to be costly, what’s most important is just being together.

10. Builds Positive Behaviors

Those who spend more time with their families are found to be less likely to engage in dangerous activities. Those who eat meals with their families tend to have better diets compared to those that don’t, and are also less likely to consume tobacco and alcohol.

11. Encourages Communication

Spending time with family fosters a healthy environment allowing for open communication. Your children need a place where they can feel safe and comfortable to talk about everything.

12. Kids Become Good Friends

Children learn from what they see, and if they are shown the importance of family time, then they are likely to take this example to others parts of their lives. Spending family time together can help make your child a better friend.

13. Create Memories

Spending time with family is a chance to build memories together, and to share their everyday ups and downs.

14. Family Bonding is Healthy

Being around your family members tends to encourage you to eat more nutritious meals, and overall take on a healthy lifestyle since you are sharing home-cooked meals together, rather than eating processed and prepared foods outside.

15. Connecting With Family Reduces Stress

Having the opportunity to express your feelings to your family can help reduce stress and find solutions to your problems.

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Ways to Spend More Time with Family

Now that you’ve understood the incredible importance of family time, the next step is finding creative ways to actually do it!

1. Family night

Consider organizing a fun family night, perhaps a game night or a picnic. There are endless low-cost or free activities you can arrange. What’s most important is that you are together!

2. Vacations

While family vacations can get costly, if you can organize something small for you and your family, it can be an incredible chance to share a new adventure together.

3. Exercise

Have you ever considered working out together as a family? It’s a great way to find motivation and spend quality time together while staying healthy.

4. Reading Activities

Spending family time together doesn’t only have to be good for the soul. It can be for the brain, too! Have a real educational experience together, such as reading books out loud to each other.

5. Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts are a creative and fun way to spend time with family and bond in a special way. It’s a way for self-expression as well as a chance to work together and help each other out.

6. Help the Community

There’s no better way to teach your children good values and the importance of helping others than actually going out and doing that with them. It’s also an incredible opportunity to spend quality time together that you can all feel good about.

7. Cooking

Cooking together is not only a fun family activity, but also a seriously rewarding one! After working hard together, you can enjoy a delicious meal together.

Steps to Making the Most of the Holidays

With the holiday season is right around the corner, now is the time to start planning and finding ways to make the most of the holidays. You may have many conflicting priorities, so the first step is deciding how you want to allocate your time. From there, you can start to plan fun activities.

Set yourself a budget for spending this holiday time, and be realistic with yourself. Spending quality family time is much more valuable than spending your hard-earned money on extravagant gifts.

Be sure to make self-care a priority too this holiday season, not forgetting about yourself as well.

10 Holiday-Themed Activities To Do Together

While the holidays can be a busy and hectic time, it’s crucial to remember the importance of family time. There are endless holiday-themed activities that you can do together as a family that also really don’t cost very much and will create life-lasting memories.

1. Have a holiday-themed dance party together.
2. Create a holiday greeting video together.
3. Host a cookie decorating event.
4. Check out the holiday lights throughout the neighborhood.
5. Try a holiday-themed scavenger hunt or escape room.
6. Have a family game night filled with holiday treats.
7. Do a good deed together.
8. Throw an ugly Christmas sweater party!
9. Go camping by the Christmas tree.
10. Make some holidays crafts as a family.

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Bonus: Quotes About Family Time

Here are some inspiring quotes about the importance of family time to give you even more encouragement to make it your number one priority!

‘‘Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.’’ — Jim Rohn

‘‘If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.’’ — Mother Teresa

‘‘In family relationships, love is really spelled T-I-M-E.’’ — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

‘‘Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.’’ — Michael J. Fox

‘‘Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.’’ — Mitch Albom

Wrapping Things Up

The holidays are a special time to be together. The new year is a chance for a new start, and a chance to make it your resolution to spend more quality family time.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up on your personal or career goals, but it means finding a balance and time for everything.

At the end of the day, what the holiday season is truly about is spending time with family.