This one’s for the dads today! Dads are an integral part of making holiday magic. If you’re wondering how you can contribute the holiday magic in your house or what you can ask the men in your life to help with this holiday season, here are my tips for how dads can help at the holidays.
In the past, I’ve talked about a few of the things that stress me out at the holidays as a mom and methods that I have found helpful to make them less stressful. What I didn’t cover in that post was my silver bullet for reducing stress – have dad help!
I have a husband who wants to be an involved dad, and I’m supremely thankful for that. Of course, he has his strengths and weaknesses (as do I), so he helps at the holidays in ways that align with his gifts and talents. If you are a dad, ask to help in ways that fit well with what you do well. If you are a mom and want to ask dad to help at the holidays, ask him for help in ways that you know are in his wheelhouse. Don’t ask dad to cook the Christmas meal (traditional or not) if he isn’t comfortable in the kitchen, for example.
With my advice out of the way, let’s explore some great ways that dads can help at the holidays.
How Dads Can Help at the Holidays
Gift ideas
Coming up with gift ideas for everyone on your family’s gift list is hard work! Because of how hard of a job this truly is, it should not land entirely on one person’s shoulders. Splitting up brainstorming gift ideas and purchases is a great way for dads to help at the holidays. Dads can help with gift ideas in lots of ways. Dads can take on specific people or a specific gift to be fully in charge of, whatever works for your family.
In my house this year, my husband is in charge of buying hockey tickets for my son’s big Christmas gift. He decided which date worked best for his schedule, checked with his mom to see if she could watch our daughter that day, picked the seats, and made the purchase. He took on the entire task of this gift, and it was such a huge help.
Wrapping
The gifts under your Christmas tree do not need to look perfect to be perfect. If dad can help get the presents under the tree, let him. The presents he wraps don’t need to have crisp corners or beautiful ribbons, just let him jump in and help. Heck, if he wants to wrap presents with newspaper or birthday wrapping, that’s helpful. You can even get him a set of gift bags and some tissue paper and make it super easy for him. Dads can help at the holidays by wrapping in any old way they want.
Gift distribution
Sometimes the last step of getting gifts to their recipients is just enough to push you over the edge. You’ve done the research, you’ve made the purchase, you’ve wrapped the present, and you’ve run out of steam. Dad can absolutely swoop in and get the gift giving over the finish line and that’s a huge help at the holidays. Heck, buy him a brown shirt so he looks the part of delivery driver.
Meal
Dads don’t just need to help with gifts at the holidays. Another way that dads can help at the holidays is with the holiday meal. If the dads in your life know their way around this kitchen, this is an easy thing to delegate all or part of. If dad likes to cook, he can handle the whole Christmas meal if he’s up for it. Even better, mom and dad can split the meal duties from planning to preparation to execution. That way, no one is overloaded by the Christmas meal and everyone can enjoy the fun of Christmas.
Grocery shopping
If dad doesn’t feel comfortable in the kitchen actually cooking the holiday meal, he can still help with the meal by going grocery shopping. Just hand dad a list and let him have at it if he usually does the shopping. If dad doesn’t frequent the grocery store, he can still help with the holiday grocery shopping. Hand him a list, sure, but you can also include brand names you like, pictures of what the packages look like, and hints for where he might find the items in the store. Help dad help you!
Decorating
Dads can help at the holidays by decorating too. At my house, the outdoor Christmas decorations are entirely dad’s domain. He strings the lights, hangs the wreaths, swaps out the doormat, and puts the signs in the yard. And he does a great job. It’s such a relief for me not to have to worry about decorating the outside of the house when I have the inside to decorate. If you have a home that needs both inside and outside decorations, consider delegating either realm to dad so you can both have fun decorating.
Kid entertainment
Dad are great playmates for the kids, so dads can help at the holidays by entertaining the kids while mom is getting stuff done. This is another area at which my husband excels. He is great at taking the kids outside to play or down to the basement to make an almighty mess and it’s a huge help. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and I love to hang out with them, but sometimes I need to just buckle down and focus when I have approximately 1,000 things on my to-do list. Dad entertaining the kids lets me cook, decorate, shop – whatever I need to get done to make that holiday magic!
Logistics
The holidays come with joy and magic, of course, but they also bring with them a ton of logistics that you don’t have to deal with the other 11 months of the year. Moms, don’t feel like you have to take care of all these extra logistics. Dads can help at the holidays with some of the logistics of being merry and bright. Do you need to make dinner reservations? Dad can handle those. Have holiday party RSVPs to make? Dad can send those texts. Need to communicate with your holiday guests? Dad has those contacts too.
Clean-up
With the fun and excitement of Christmas comes clean-up. Whether you’re talking about the discarded wrapping on Christmas morning, the dishes from the Christmas meal, or un-decorating after the holiday season is over, Christmas is a mess that needs to be cleaned-up. Dads can help at the holidays by pitching in to clean up. If mom is manning the camera while the kids are opening presents, dad can grab a trash bag and collect the wrapping paper. If mom cooked the holiday meal, dad can do the dishes. There is plenty of mess to clean up, so let dad help!
Participation
Perhaps the best way that dads can help at the holidays is to participate in all of the fun, joy-filled activities of the holiday season. Watch Christmas movies with the kids, go visit Santa, drive around with the family to look at Christmas lights. Whatever your family’s holidays traditions are, make sure dad can be involved in as many as possible. Dad’s participation will help make Christmas truly magical.
Other posts
Are you fully in Christmas mode? Check out these posts to get you even more in the holiday spirit:
I hope this gives you ideas for how dads can help at the holidays. How do the dads in your lives help at the holidays? Let us know down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.