The school break for the holidays is rapidly approaching, and our absolute best tip for surviving it with your teen is to have fun! Here are several ideas for activities your teen can do over the holiday break. Encourage your teenager to choose a couple of these activities as a family experience or time with their friends.

1. Bake and decorate cookies. This is always a favorite activity for teens. If you don’t want that many sweets in the house, organize a cookie exchange or suggest your teen bake enough to share with neighbors or first responders.
2. Decorate doors. Encourage your teen to use their creativity to wrap their bedroom door like a present.
3. Learn something new. Encourage your teen to learn something over the break, such as how to make a family favorite dish, how a different culture celebrates the holiday season, or how to make origami and then use their creations as gift tags.
4. Hold a contest. Encourage your teen to invite the extended family or their friends to participate in a holiday-themed contest! It could be an ugly Christmas sweater contest, where everyone logs on to a video call wearing their worst holiday garb. It could be a Pinterest contest, where everyone agrees to try a Pinterest recipe at the same time and take photos of their final results. It could be a gingerbread-decorating contest, where everyone shares photos of their creation. Your teen can assemble all of the photos anonymously on one page for everyone to vote for their favorite. The gingerbreads don’t even need to be traditional – your teen could suggest that everyone must decorate their house for any holiday that is NOT Christmas.
5. Visit a local tourist spot. Go to a cool museum, arcade, indoor rock wall, ice skating rink, or trampoline park.
6. Go on a winter photo scavenger hunt. Gather your teen’s friends or cousins and pass out a list of winter-y items they have to take photos of. Whoever gets the most photos in the fastest time, wins a prize.
7. Play in the snow. If you’re blessed with snow during the break, don’t let the opportunity pass you by! Go sledding, build a snowman, have a snowball fight, or host a snow sculpture contest.
8. Drive through light displays. Make some hot cocoa, pour a cup for each member of the family, and head out in the car in search of the best holiday light displays. Some cities and towns offer a professionally made light display with admission, or you may know of a couple of neighborhoods that always go above and beyond each winter.
9. Make your own holiday decorations. Whether it’s a wreath, table centerpiece, paper snowflakes, or a mantel display, ask your teen to use their creativity to make festive decorations for your home.
10. Host a paint night. There are plenty of online video tutorials you could play on your computer that will guide you through creating your own masterpiece. Look for a tutorial that focuses on a holiday themed picture.
11. Cozy movie marathons. Ask your teen to choose a movie theme, make popcorn, and pull out all the pillows.
12. Create a holiday playlist. Ask your teen to create a playlist of holiday-themed music that you can play during their school break. Or encourage your teen to make a crazy music video to a holiday song.
13. Game tournament. Whether you choose a holiday-themed board game or an all-out video game tournament, make the game night evening festive with fun desserts and drinks!
14. Bonfire. Get a warm bonfire going in the backyard, add some cozy blankets, and allow your teen to have a few friends over to roast s’mores and talk.
15. Welcome 2023 with a paper lantern. Paper lanterns have become very popular way to celebrate new beginnings. Gather with friends or family and write your hopes and wishes for the new year on the lanterns and launch them into the night sky.

Middle Earth wishes you and your loved ones peace, love, and happiness during this holiday season!