{"id":2503,"date":"2015-12-21T11:14:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T11:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2015-12-17T11:55:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T11:55:18","slug":"five-tips-for-happy-children-and-happy-homes-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/12\/21\/five-tips-for-happy-children-and-happy-homes-this-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips for Happy Children and Happy Homes this Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all know how stressful Christmas can be with young children. But we also know how rewarding it can be to spend this special time of year with family. So how do you make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible? Top parenting author <a href=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/author\/Lou-Harvey-Zahra\/\">Lou Harvey-Zahra<\/a> told us her top five tips for happy children and happy homes at Christmas.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slow down and breathe<\/strong>. Remember to slow down and appreciate your family connections during this festive time. Children live in the now so be present with your children, it is the greatest &#8216;present&#8217; to give.<\/li>\n<li>The feeling of gratitude raises oxytocin\u00a0(our happy hormone) by 25 percent. As an adult, write a Christmas list of <strong>five things you are grateful for<\/strong> this Christmas (see if children can join in too).<\/li>\n<li>Nurture the <strong>gift of \u2018giving\u2019<\/strong>. Make simple baked gifts and cards with children. Encourage older children to create a voucher card as a gift to a parent or loved one (I will wash your car, make you breakfast, give you a hand massage etc).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/book\/Lou-Harvey-Zahra\/Creative+Discipline%2C+Connected+Family\/9781782502135\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2504\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Harvey-ZahraCreativeDiscipline-3d-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"Harvey-ZahraCreativeDiscipline-3d\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>The \u2018Three Things Rule\u2019 for the Christmas stocking is a good idea: <strong>a good book, a craft activity, a family game<\/strong> or game to encourage movement for children.<\/li>\n<li>Remember that there is <strong>no such thing as a perfect parent<\/strong> or a perfect Christmas day, there may still be trying moments with over-excited, over-stimulated young ones. My new book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/book\/Lou-Harvey-Zahra\/Creative+Discipline%2C+Connected+Family\/9781782502135\">Creative Discipline, Connected Family: Transforming Tears, Tantrums and Troubles while Staying Close to your Children<\/a> will be great in your parent stocking to help with this! Let go of perfection and go for connection!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lou&#8217;s books, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/book\/Lou-Harvey-Zahra\/Happy+Child%2C+Happy+Home\/9781782500551\">Happy Child, Happy Home<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/book\/Lou-Harvey-Zahra\/Creative+Discipline%2C+Connected+Family\/9781782502135\">Creative Discipline, Connected Family<\/a> are available now in paperback and ebook formats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know how stressful Christmas can be with young children. But we also know how rewarding it can be to spend this special time of year with family. So how do you make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible? Top parenting author Lou Harvey-Zahra told us her top five tips for happy children [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Tips for Happy Children and Happy Homes this Christmas - Floris Books Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/12\/21\/five-tips-for-happy-children-and-happy-homes-this-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Tips for Happy Children and Happy Homes this Christmas - Floris Books Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all know how stressful Christmas can be with young children. 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