Since time immemorial, Christmas has been the season of spreading good cheer, of spending time with your family and of sharing, caring and giving. Of love and compassion and of family bonding. However, it is not a surprise that a large number of people nowadays do not spend Christmas with their families. While some of them are too busy with other pursuits, the vast majority of these people do not spend Christmas with their family because they do not like doing it.




Instead of spending Christmas with their family, they prefer spending it alone or with friends and colleagues. This is indeed a sad reflection of our times. But more than this, it is a wake up call for all of us who have been blessed with a good family and great kids, but are too busy with our professional lives to spend time with them.

Christmas with family
Large picture: Christmas with family

It is therefore imperative that we take every opportunity to bond with our family and make the most of our relations, and Christmas, no doubt, provides us with the best opportunity for bonding with our family. So this time around, make sure that you take time out from your busy work schedules in order to have a long Christmas at home. Trust me, your old parents and your young children will really appreciate it. Stop treating Christmas as a time for socializing and designate it as official family bonding time. Invite family like parents, children and their spouses and your brothers and sisters with their families for Christmas.




Spend quality time with your kids before your extended family arrives. Christmas is a good time to teach your family, especially children about values like love, compassion, giving and sharing. Try to include the whole family in different Christmas activities like festival related cooking, decorating the house and the tree and wrapping up gifts etcetra.

Come up with games that your family might enjoy. Build a snowman together with your kids. Go ice skating. In fact, it is a good idea to go shopping together, where you can make your kids choose their own gifts, but do the latter only when you have an unlimited budget.

The key here is not to get too involved in planning the feast and the party, but to give yourself a break and to spend maximum time with your family. A family Christmas is the best kind of Christmas and once you have had a good one, you will make it a point to enjoy every future Christmas with your family.