A few years back my parents gave me this beautiful advent calendar:
I love it.
They gave one to each of their children on Thanksgiving and filled each door with notes, candy, activities, pocket money, etc. It was so fun to open the door every day and find what little goodie was in store for us.
Every year since then I have planned on refilling that advent calendar and putting inside the doors some treats and notes but also an activity for our family to do every day for those 24 days leading up to Christmas…but I’ve never done it…or at least I’ve never successfully completed it.
It seems like without fail on the years I’ve tried it my kids will open up like door 12 and the note inside will say, “Tonight you’ll get to make gingerbread houses!” and the kids go wild and are excited.
And then I remember…that it is the same night that I have to teach a class and it’s the school program and my husband will be gone to meetings so it will be virtually impossible to do gingerbread men houses. Then I have to tell the kids we’ll have to skip the gingerbread houses tonight and later as I’m tucking them into bed I feel like a bad mom…
BUT NOT THIS YEAR!
(I swear, not this year.)
(I swear, not this year.)
I’ve promised myself that this holiday season is going to be fun (with our without the ginger bread houses) and family filled (even if it’s only for a few minutes each day). So here is my plan:
(And it begins with the Advent Calendar….)
(And it begins with the Advent Calendar….)
I’ve made a list of over 30 different holiday activities to do as a family. Some are as simple as “eat a piece of Christmas candy” and some are as involved as “take some canned food to a soup kitchen”. But they are all things I’d like to do with my family this holiday season.
And they are all activities I am going to choose from when loading my Advent Calendar.
And they are all activities I am going to choose from when loading my Advent Calendar.
HOWEVER…instead of loading the entire Advent Calendar at the end of Thanksgiving I’m going to print out all the activity ideas and keep them in an envelope. And then each Sunday night in December I will load the advent calendar for the upcoming week. That way I will know what will be going on each night and be able to plan accordingly.
On days that I know we will be busy I will put in the simple activities and on days that I know we will have more time I will put in those more involved activities. I know there will be some of the activities that we won’t do and there may be others that we do twice. But the point is that we will do something together everyday.
That is the plan.
And I’m sticking to it!
If you are interested, here is the list of activities that I will be choosing from each week as I load the advent calendar:
#1. Write Christmas Cards
#2. Mail Christmas Cards (address the envelopes, putting on the stamps, taking them to the post office)
#3. Deliver Neighbor Christmas gifts
#4. Do 1 act of service for someone in the family
#5. Do 1 act of service for someone who isn’t in the family
#6. Read a Christmas Story
#7. Make Christmas Cookies
#8. Make Wassail and Drink it in Fancy Cups
#9. Make Hot Chocolate and Drink it in Silly Mugs
#10. Paint a Winter Painting
#11. Sing a Christmas Carol
#12. Tell/Act Out Nativity Story
#13. Watch a Christmas Movie
#14. Eat Some Christmas Candy
#15. Wrap a Gift
#16. Donate some of your Change to Bell Ringer
#17. Find Items to Donate to Charity (toys, clothing, blankets, or canned goods)
#18. Take the Items You Found and Donate Them (at a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a drop off location, etc.)
#19. Make Your Christmas Wish List
#20. Write a Letter to Santa
#21. Have a Campout by the Fire
#22. Have a Family Popcorn and Pajama Party
#23. Make Gift Tags
#24. Take a Winter Walk at Night
#25. Make Paper Snowflakes
#26. Make Gingerbread Houses
#27. Make Gingerbread Men
#28. Hang Mistletoe
#29. Go on A Drive to See the Holiday Lights
#30. Have a Hot Chocolate Mixing Bar (let everyone experiment with adding different ingredients to their own hot chocolate—peppermint sticks, peanut butter chips, cinnamon, whipped cream & sprinkles, etc.)
#31. Decorate Christmas Pillowcases (let them use fabric markers on white pillowcases)
#32. Build a Snowman
#33. Make Snow Angels
#34. String Popcorn for the Christmas Tree
#35. Light Christmas Candles in the Window
#36. Take a Winter Walk Before Dinner
#37. Play a Game of Holiday Charades
#38. Wear Christmas Socks
(And if you have any other ideas to add to my list please leave them in the comments below. For this project I can’t have too many ideas. I’m going to make this work. I want to do something together as a family each day leading up to Christmas and I really think I can do it. This is the year.)
-liZ
You could throw in specific holiday videos for a night. Say Rudolph (1 hr?), Frosty (1/2 hr.) and our yearly tradition Polar Express. Perfect for the movie night! Also, write a note of joy and hope and leave on someones windshield, etc. One of my favorite year round activities–thanking a man or woman in service uniform for their service. Around here I don’t see as many in uniform but I try..”Thank you for your service” and sometimes I get a big smile and thank you, sometimes a look of confusion because it takes them by surprise, but followed by a thank you. I feel it is the least I can do for what they and their families sacrifice for us. I know the red Cross here has a program to send holiday cards to veterans and service men and women for the holidays–perhaps in your area also.
It would help you be successful if you kept a master list of the activities assigned to specific days so you could plan your day’s activities, obligations, and meals around them. Love this idea!
Thank you Liz. I LOVE this list. I’m not super fancy yet so I don’t have an advent calendar, but these are great activities to get you in the Christmas spirit. The only thing that’s not on the list that I love to do is: visit a live nativity. The kids love it and the family that does it really does a great job of keeping the spirit of Christ in it.
With Love,
Al @ Shaffer Sisters
I do this too! It does work best for me to just keep an envelope of the activities and put them in as I know they will work with our schedule. The one we did last year that was the biggest hit was “Valet dinner date night” I got my girls dressed up and my husband dressed up too, put them in the car with him, he drove them around a few neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights while I got the dinner table ready with candles and fancy plates and pizza. He called me when he was pulling in the driveway so I could go open the doors and welcome them to their restaurant, we took them inside pulled out their chairs and sat down took their drink orders and had a “fancy” pizza meal. It was their favorite activity out of everything the whole month!
We fill our calendar pockets with knock-knock jokes and fun but weird facts — cheap, calorie free and takes no time at all but still gives us a laugh — and often something to share with others during the day.
Great ideas!!!
Al, I’ve never visited a live nativity…I’ll have to look around and see if there are any in our area. That sounds really neat.
-liZ
I’m totally going to copy you and do this kind of a dinner with my kids. I think they would love it. It’s such a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing it!
-liZ
Knock-knock jokes!!! My kids would love that…and Simon is way into random facts so he would be all over that to. Thank you for sharing!!!
-liZ
LOVE this idea!! I like the plan the week part, too the most. I mean I hardly know what’s happening until the week of either (especially around Christmas) and I don’t even have kids! I can’t imagine. 🙂 I’d love to know how it all turns out when December’s over!
That is brilliant! I always have resisted doing it for the same reasons!
Thanks for sharing this list. Maybe I will try it too.
~Michelle
Awesome ideas! Ours are grown and married now, but their fond memories are of reading Richard Evans’ “The Christmas Box” to them, Christmas videos, s’mores made in the fireplace. I wish now we’d taken goodies to the local firehouse and police station to say “thanks” to first responders for all they do. Oh, and the kids loved driving around looking at Christmas lights.
Kelley~
I’m doing this as well this year. Instead of candy or a present every day, I want to do something Christmassy every day. It’s a bit harder here in Holland, as we have Sinterklaas on dec 5th (he’s the original Santa i believe 😉 where kids get lots of candy in the week leading up to the 5th, and presents on the evening of the 5th). I don’t really want to keep up all the sweets and gifts till Christmas. I’d rather do something kind, something fun, something thoughtful every day. My husband is German, and grew up with chocolates and presents in the advent calender, so he isn’t too excited about it…. hahaha. Anyway, we’re going to make thank you cards for the teachers and give those together with some christmas cookies, we’re going to make bird food (seeds, some vegetable fat and some kind of container), we’re going to an elderly home (if that’s the proper english word for a home for old folks) and bring cookies/sing christmas songs. And of course lots of the things you said as well. By the way, i’m planning exactly the same way as you! otherwise it’s not going to happen…..
Have a great advent period and christmas!