Christmas time can be really difficult for grieving children and families. Whether it’s been a few months or several years, we know grief isn’t a step-by-step process and no two people have the same experience. Lots of things may change, but it’s important to try and make some new traditions, perhaps one of them could be playing a game or creating something together.

This Christmas, we hope you can find little moments of joy amidst your grief, so here is an activity we hope will be a distraction, even if it’s only temporary.

Once the snowman strike activity has been made with the help of a grown-up, the child/children can play the game by themselves. They could create a competition to play against others or keep a scoreboard by themselves. You could add numbers to each snowman to make the scoring system even more tactical if you like.

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You will need:

• Toilet roll tubes or pieces of card
• Pens/pencils
• A ball
• Optional: any other arts and crafts materials

Instructions:

1. Take your toilet roll tubes or pieces of card (an adult can roll the card into tube shapes like a toilet roll tube and tape them together for you) and paint or colour them* in white if they aren’t already. *Ideally, you’ll need at least three, but you can make as many as you’d like if you have lots of these materials available.

2. You can then colour or paint the snowman’s face onto the tube. You can add any craft materials at this stage – be as creative as you’d like, you could add a paper scarf, stick a curved piece of paper over the top and add pom-poms to look like earmuffs! Whatever you like.

3. After your snowmen have been designed, you might like to add a scoring system to each one – you could then play more tactically and aim to knock down the one with the highest points. 

4. Line your snowmen up just like you might have seen skittles lined up if you’ve been bowling or played a similar game before. Make sure you’ve got enough space to bowl a ball at them.

5. Take your ball and have a go! See how many you can knock down.

6. You might like to play this game over the Christmas period with anyone who is visiting you, or you can compete with yourself and make a note of your high score each time you play!

 If you complete this activity, please feel free to tag us in your photos on social media!