Our Holiday Tradition: The Christmas Dance Party

We have a bit of a holiday tradition at our house where we all get together and have a dance party after all the eating and present opening of Christmas. Or while we’re waiting for all that to happen, depending on how restless the natives are. Strange? Maybe. But until you’ve seen Grandma shake her groove thing to Katy Perry by the light of the Christmas tree you just don’t know what you’ve been missing in your life. The Christmas Dance Party is definitely something we look forward to!

What does dancing have to do with holiday tradition? Lots, really. About this time of year our absolute favorite family game Just Dance comes out with a new edition. The kids’ need to move around a little while we’re packed in together at Christmas and my family’s overdeveloped sense of humor and flair for the dramatic work so well with this game. The whole crew loves to have something so silly and fun to do together like crazy dancing, so we pop in Just Dance and see who has the best moves every year.

Uncle Sean usually wins. Of course, that’s probably due to his manly mustache and hipster beard. Once the small boy grows a few facial hairs, we know Uncle Sean will finally be in for some stiff competition. Heavily groomed beard hair aside, the kids love ganging up on Uncle Sean in a friendly Just Dance battle whenever they can! When I say friendly, I do mean serious. There are sweatbands and dance gloves involved. And personalized glittery dance name t-shirts. One year I even had to run out at the last minute to replace our broken Wii just so this dance party contest could go on!

The kids were surprised a bit early this year with a visit from Uncle Sean and his wife, so I also surprised them with Just Dance 2016 to make the visit more fun. I wish I had caught the screams of delight on video; they were that thrilled. Especially since some of their favorite songs from this past year like Demi Levato’s “Cool for the Summer” and Katy Perry’s “This is How we Do” were in the track list.

But really, there is a song for everyone in this version with 40 top hits and quirky favorites! The kids will love “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor and “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson, while others can get into “Copacabana” and selections from “Grease.” You’ll also find some Irish field dancing and some really crazy songs you’ve never heard of but will love dancing to. I think my personal favorite part about this new edition are the backgrounds–because I’m detail oriented like that–the new version’s are really intricate and move and change throughout the songs. Makes for interesting viewing!

That’s game face going on right there. Intense Just Dance concentration! We could only find three of our four controllers for our Wii this day, but if Christmas day was actually here and we had the new WiiU Santa’s bringing, a few missing controllers wouldn’t have been a problem. The newer game consoles can turn your smart phone into a game controller! We’ve come such a long way since my childhood Atari. You can read more about the Just Dance phone magic here. 

The whole family gets involved when we’re playing because the watching of the dancers is just as fun as doing the dancing. We’ve recently instituted score cards for the peanut gallery to flash, as we discovered one of the “adults” may cheat a little, so we need to give props for style points to the crowd favorite as well. I designed up a new fancy set to be ready for our Christmas showdown this year.

For your personal enjoyment, you can download the score cards here for free to print at home!

Right on time for the holidays – the perfect family activity, Just Dance 2016 is now available for all motion-control gaming platforms, including Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Wii. Build a few great family memories, make a new holiday tradition, and have a silly bit of fun on Christmas–or any day of the year!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.