It is officially that time of year when Mariah Carey starts playing, shopping malls turn into glitter bomb zones, and your kids suddenly develop endless energy reserves powered entirely by food and pure chaos.
But while everyone else is switching to holiday mode, you’re still very much in that “just-one-more-email-before-we-log-off” mode. And your kids? They’re ready for a three-week carnival.
Don’t stress, here’s how to keep your little humans entertained and engaged.
Give your kids some paper, scissors, crayons, and an unreasonable amount of glitter, and tell them they’re in charge of your family’s “holiday brand identity.” Next thing you know, your entire house will be covered in a brand refresh you never asked for, but hey, creativity builds leaders!
Tip: Anything they make is automatically a “keepsake.” This saves you from throwing it away while they stare at you like you’ve crushed their dreams.
Ordered gifts on Takealot? Great!
The boxes they came in = hours of blissful silence.
Kids will turn a cardboard box into literally anything they can imagine: a spaceship, a castle, a secret hideout, or a grocery store selling imaginary items at suspiciously high prices.
Encourage this; you’re buying yourself some focus time (and an imaginary bag of cucumbers, for some reason).
Whether it’s baking, coding, drawing, or dancing, online holiday sessions are a game-changer. Your child gets to explore something new, and you get 45 - 90 minutes of uninterrupted work time.
Everyone wins.
Bonus: You can tell all the other parents, “Oh yes, my child is getting ahead academically,” even if they were actually building a pixelated pineapple in Minecraft.
Send them outside with a list of “missions.” Think scavenger hunt meets Amazing Race, but without the prize money.
Some ideas to get you started:
Kids love having a sense of purpose, and you love the quiet that comes with them playing outside.
Kids love responsibility, especially when it sounds fancy. Tell them they’ve been promoted to “Chief Snack Officer.” Their job? Prepare snack trays for everyone throughout the day.
This will give you:
Note: This works best if you stock the fridge beforehand. Otherwise, expect some very creative snacks (like Marie biscuits and mayonnaise).
Want to minimise the noise for a few hours? Try encouraging your kids to read (yes, picture books count) in a home built fort.
Blankets + pillows + fairy lights = a reading paradise.
Give them books, comics, magazines, or even printouts of old homework assignments and tell them it’s “top secret reading time.”
The best part is that the fort magically traps noise! (Okay, not really, but let’s pretend.)
Pick a movie theme:
You can go with festive favourites, talking animals, fairy tales, or anything that your kids find entertaining. Some tried-and-tested favourites include anything Disney, funny-sounding cartoons, and inanimate objects that talk (for some reason).
Let your kids choose the movies or series and set up the marathon themselves.
Your only role is to occasionally say, “Wow, that sounds fun!” while typing furiously on your laptop.
Kids are super competitive. Use this to your advantage.
Tell them: “Let’s see who can stay quiet the longest. You win bonus points for reading, drawing, or keeping the dog busy while I’m in my meeting.”
You may only get 15–20 minutes of peace, but that’s a win! Treat it as a miracle.
Don’t say: “Help me clean the house.”
Say: “You’ve been selected for a top-secret mission called Operation Tidy Tornado. Your job is to restore order before Santa does his inspection.”
Boom, free labour.
Nothing keeps kids occupied like a 500-piece puzzle that’s mostly the same colour.
Will they finish it? Probably not.
Will they try for hours? Absolutely.
Board games are just as entertaining. A game of Monopoly with their siblings can keep them busy for a whole afternoon, and even end with a lesson in financial responsibility (or how to lose gracefully).
And you? Emails. Meetings. Productivity you haven’t had in weeks.
Balancing work and kids during the festive season is basically part time project management, part time chaos control, and part time pretending you don’t hear them fighting in the next room.
But with a little creativity and maybe a few extra boxes of snacks, you’ll survive the season with your sanity intact.
And remember: when in doubt, there’s always a movie and a bowl of popcorn big enough to solve 80% of your holiday problems.