Advent

Three and a half years...

In the last three and a half years, we've moved to another state, had a baby, and bought a house (therefore moving again). I hate moving. 

But this post isn't about all that. I wanted to capture what I'm doing to make this Christmas time more special for my kids (mostly the 5yo at this point because 15mo is clueless).

First, every year I select my favorite of our extensive Christmas book selection and add in a few new books, maybe a puzzle or movie or two. Then wrap each item to make a (mostly) Christmas book advent calendar. 

So I thought that was that and we'd be all good. We'd try to make cookies and go look at Christmas lights at some point of course, too, but I didn't need any of those toy calendars or chocolate calendars. 

Except, our church sent out the supplies to make an advent calendar. And 5yo likes making things. And 5yo wanted to put something in the little bags. So fine, I thought, I'll have her help me make it then run to the store and get some chocolate or something.

She wrote all the numbers and I love it! I hope it lasts forever because I always want to remember her backward 7 and 9. 

Yesterday, Dec 1st (yes I know I'm cutting it close), I happened to read two (or three?) separate, completely unrelated, articles/posts about Christmas Activity Advent calendars. One or both mentioned they were a good way to start and keep traditions. That hit me in the feels. I LOVE traditions around holidays, especially Christmas. I want my kids to have warm, happy memories of all the things around Christmas. My husband can be a bit of a grump around Christmas, but it's my favorite time of the year. So I decided I was going to use our church advent calendar as a way of starting or continuing some traditions. 

These are the things I put in our advent calendar. I tried to line up activities for specific days of the week so I wasn't trying to make and decorate sugar cookies on a Monday night. I'll also list some alternative ideas at the end.

1 - Make Advent Calendar (I cheated a bit here!)

2 - Look up an organization you like and donate

3 - Make String Christmas Trees (https://www.themakeyourownzone.com/how-to-make-a-string-christmas-tree/)

4 - Make Snow Slime (https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2015/12/snow-slime-in-a-jar-homemade-gifts-for-kids.html)

5 - Watch New Movie (This is the movie they'll unwrap in the book advent calendar. It's The Star)

6 - Hang Stockings and Decorate "Mantel" (We don't have a fireplace, but I'm putting up a shelf for the stockings and calling it a mantel.)

7 - Buy Food and Donate it

8 - Make Sparkly Snowflake and Tree Ornaments (We may only do one or the other. We'll see how ambitious we are. Snowflakes - https://toddlerapproved.com/2016/12/sparkly-snowflake-craft-for-kids.html Trees - https://onelittleproject.com/glittering-popsicle-stick-christmas-trees/)

9 - Make Snowball Cookies

10 - Make Yarn-wrapped Angle Ornament (https://www.messylittlemonster.com/2018/12/yarn-angel-ornaments-easy-yarn.html)

11 - Wear Christmas PJs to bed (I needed an easy one and I got them some matching Christmas jammies they don't yet know about.)

12 - Make Molasses Cookies (Some of my favorite!!!)

13 - Christmas Photo Props (I'm thinking here I'll make some of those props on a stick things and we can take some fun pictures)

14 - Buy a Gift for a Toy Drive

15 - Put up Christmas Lights somewhere in the House

16 - Holiday Flavor Ice Cream Party

17 - Look at Photos of Christmas's Past (This was actually requested by the 5yo. She loves hearing stories about our past or when she was little.)

18 - Dress up for Dinner (I'm picturing us all dressed up fancy with fancy plates and tablecloth, but eating takeout pizza or something. We'll see. I haven't decided on the menu yet.)

19 - Drink Hot Chocolate and Watch Polar Express (We already have this movie, but they're getting the book in the book advent calendar, so it seemed fitting to watch the movie that night too.)

20 - Make Fudge

21 - Give a Homemade Gift to a Neighbor (We'll have already made a number of things to choose from!)

22 - Make and Decorate Sugar Cookies

23 - Make Chocolate Covered Pretzels

24 - Watch The Santa Clause and Decorate Sugar Cone Christmas Trees (Similar to a Gingerbread House)

25 - Video Chat with Oma and Opa and Gramma and Sing Christmas Carols

Other ideas (from myself and others):

- Drive around and look at Christmas Lights (Thought of this after I was done. We'll do it anyway.)

- Make Chocolate Covered Cherries (I do this many years, but the recipe makes a lot and with the pandemic isolation, it just doesn't make sense this year.)

- Watch Home Alone, Rudolf, Frosty, Elf or many other Christmas movies

- Go Caroling at a Nursing Home (For obvious reasons, not an option this year)

- Make Caramels

- Open and share a box of Christmas Chocolates

- Decorate the Christmas Tree (if not already done)

- Write/Send Christmas Cards

- Go to the Nutcracker Ballet (in non-pandemic times), or just watch it on TV

- Candy Cane Hunt (Hide candy canes for others to find)

- Make Paper Snowflakes

- Decorate a Gingerbread House

- Go to a Drive Thru and Pay for the Car Behind You

- Leave $5 and a Kind Note on a Stranger's Car

- Decorate the Kids' Bedroom(s) for Christmas

- Paint Nails in Christmas Colors

- Hand out Candy Canes Around the Neighborhood (not pandemic friendly)

While searching for other ideas for the future, I also found this great calendar of service activities. Looks like it was created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but it has some great ideas. https://assets.ldscdn.org/7e/8c/7e8c9fe274ab5e2e7b1972c1c9239cea69be71f6/prompt_calendar.pdf (In case the link doesn't work in the future, search for Light The World.)

I don't know how many people will find this post. I'm mostly making it for myself to reference in future years. But if you do find it, I hope you enjoy, and please share any other ideas you have!