With winter holidays coming up, it’s again time for parents to put on their thinking caps and come up with new ideas to keep their kids entertained. While Christmas provides plenty of distractions outdoors, what do you do when the trips to Disneyland and Ocean Park are over, and all the Christmas gifts have been unwrapped? Instead of turning to iPads and Playstations, why not try these simple and creative ideas!

Stamped Shirt

All you need is a clean white shirt, some cut veggies, colourful non-toxic paints and an artistic streak. Encourage your child to experiment with geometric shapes using okra, bell peppers, potatoes, lemons and whatnots. Try a pastel palette for a flowery shirt!

Stardust Garden

Bring out the budding gardener in your child by encouraging them to plant mini-gardens in a small flower pot. Jazz up the pots with colourful paints and sprinkle glitter. It’s a good way to teach your child about environment conservation through a hands-on method.

Race Course

Use colourful tapes and create a customisable racing track for your kids’ toy cars. Make sure to use an easily-removable brand to avoid leaving some unsightly marks on the floor.

Little People

Give your child some simple flour dough and let them create mini figurines of people or animals or whatever else they like. It is one of the most uncomplicated ways of keeping your kid busy and the best part is that they won’t hurt themselves on rough edges while playing with dough.

Foamy Art

You’ll need some shaving cream, glue and food colour for this one. Mix everything together in a sealed bag and cut off a little corner at the bottom to use like a piping bag. The foam solidifies overnight to become super-cool, colourful, puffed-up masterpieces.

Christmas Cookies

Buy a batch of cookies from the bakery of your choice. Create your own icing by mixing icing sugar, a couple drops of vanilla extract and water. Separate into separate batches and add different food colours. Stuff into a sealed bag and cut off the corner, and get your kids piping their favourite festive designs. Voila, home-made Christmas cookies!

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay and Tenzing Thondup