How to enjoy Bonfire night with little people
Having had a couple of abortive attempts at celebrating the 5th November in previous years since the kids were born we finally had a lovely little pagan-style celebration at the weekend with a small bonfire, a pumpkin with candles, sparklers and hot dogs. The kids loved it but only because we’d
(a) started the bonfire before it was actually dark (clever Daddy realised they’d be cold and knackered if we hung out to 6pm when they’d normally be sitting in a hot bath),
(b) wrapped them up really really warmly even though the sun was quite toasty before it went down,
(c) we had no fireworks (our fatal error in previous years had been to forget that kids find fireworks intensly frightening and naturally assume they are going to die) other than sparklers which they’d never come across before (the next day I overheard a sweet little conversation between the two little ones “I really bejoyed those sparklers last night. Did you?”),
(d) we made sure there was lots of food available including sweet stuff to keep their blood sugar levels high,
(e) we took the pumpkin lantern outside - they considered him a friend,
(f) we were all done and were inside watching a family film before the really big fireworks from nearby displays kicked off and enjoyed them through the windows.