Let’s face it; Black Friday is getting old. So let everyone else get up at the crack of dawn and fight each other for those “door-buster” deals. After all, if you’re like most moms and dads, you spent much of the days before cleaning the house and preparing a huge meal for your extended family. Wouldn’t you rather sleep in and enjoy a late breakfast or brunch with your kids?

Besides, there are plenty of fun family activities that you can do to help everyone remember the true meaning of the holidays… which, of course, is family.

So instead of joining the throngs of consumers on the hunt for cheap TVs and discounted appliances, hang out with your kids and try out the following fun activities:

• The Holiday Hat Game – Ask everyone to write down a favorite holiday memory on a slip of paper and then put the slips into a hat. Pass the hat around and have people pull out memories and try to guess which person wrote what.

• Kids Cuisine – If your children are old enough to be left alone in the kitchen, have them cook a holiday meal for the whole family. They can plan a menu, pick out ingredients and submit a shopping list for you to take to the store. Tell them that their only limit is their imaginations. Be aware that you may end up with ice cream and cookies for the main course…

• Lighted Scavenger Hunt – Spend an evening driving around to look at Christmas lights. Give everyone in the family a list of items that must be found before going home – items like a manger scene, a Santa Claus, a house with all blue lights, a Christmas tree, a menorah, etc. Come home to hot chocolate and take a vote on your favorite light display – and drop a note in that home’s mailbox to let them know how much you enjoyed their decorations.

• Sentence-at-a-Time Story – Tell a story about the holidays… one sentence at a time. Have everyone sit in a circle, and start with a sentence about your favorite holiday memory. Then have each member of the family chime in with the next line of the story. The goal is to get the story to be the most fun, unbelievable holiday memory ever!

• Find the Holiday Alarm! – If you have a smartphone that you can customize ringtones for, pick a holiday tune, set it as your alarm and then hide it somewhere in the house. Next, have your kids find the phone before the alarm sounds. If they can’t find it, your holiday alarm will start playing, leading everyone to the phone’s location!

• The Holiday Time Capsule – Get a box and have the whole family find items to put in it as part of a family time capsule. These could be anything – newspapers, pieces of clothing, photographs, notes… Then, in a special ceremony, seal up the box with a “do not open until…” note and place it somewhere safe and secure. This works great if you start when your kids are infants. Then, by the time they’re seven or eight, you can start opening time capsules as well as making them!

• Holiday Movie Night! – Designate a non-school night as “holiday movie night.” Let the kids choose the movie (or movies), make treats and snuggle under a blanket for the big show. This could even be one time where kids (and adults!) get to stay up as late as they want!

Whatever your choice may be, remember to have fun and enjoy. For more tips on fun ways to spend time with your family this holiday season, check out this article.