By EK Wills
What better way to spend time with friends and family than to get together for an activity?
It could be to socialize over drinks, bake with the kids or make Christmas decorations.
This time of year is the opportunity to reconnect with community and we’ve been squeezing as much of it in as we can.
Christmas Cookies
Baking is a great way to get kids off screens and teach them kitchen skills. Plus you get to spend time together with the objective of creating something for someone else.
This year, my son got to take the reigns and we baked Christmas crescents and stars in separate batches over different sessions. These became gift packs for his teacher, our neighbours and for me to take to work for meetings.
It brings people together in the creation and the sharing of the results. Who doesn't appreciate a home baked biscuit.
Christmas Craft
This year, everywhere you look has flashing lights and ropes of blue icicles in front yards. If you would like to add a creative touch to your Christmas display, try creating your own decorations.
Paper lanterns I saw in a $2 shop inspired this year’s craft in our house.
We used red lanterns as our canvases, which could be hung together with a string of lights.
The decorations were created with aluminium foil (or aluminum for our North American friends). Shapes of angels, stars, hearts and trees were created using cookie cutters (having cleaned them after baking, of course) and glued to the paper. Diamonte stickers and shredded rainbow iridescent foil added the final touches.
These wouldn't do well in weather so we draped them across windows inside the front rooms of the house, which can be seen from outside illuminated by the Christmas lights.
Christmas Gatherings
Many of us work all year and find that we don't get as much time to see the important people in our lives as much as we would like.
But now, family meals, midweek drinks after work and catch-ups with friends all fill up the calendar.
This time of year provides us with the perfect excuse to reconnect but this can also run the risk of overload. Too much of anything can be stressful and for some people, socializing is hard work more than fun.
Extroverted people get energized from social interaction and large groups are great for this. Introverted people may prefer more intimate tête-à-tête. Still others, find themselves social masking to get through social events.
Social masking uses cues, techniques and learned approaches to interact in a social atmosphere. It is often used by people such as when they don't feel comfortable socially, suffer from social anxiety of just don't understand social communication.
Social communication is being able to read body language, guess what another person is thinking or show appropriate emotional responses to situations.
After watching a documentary called “Are you autistic?”, I reflected on different people’s needs for social interaction and how sensory overload can occur at different stages for all of us.
At the end of Christmas, there will be an opportunity to sit back and reflect on the activities of your festive season. What will yours entail?
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