I'm just now putting together some activities for our Advent calendar and thought I'd share some of our holiday happenings that I wrote on slips of paper and stuffed into the little pockets:
Dec. 1st: Let's decorate the house for Christmas tonight!
Dec. 2nd: Secretly do something nice for someone today.
Dec. 3rd: Let's trim the tree tonight!
Dec. 4th: Let's bring pizza to Grammy and help decorate her house tonight!
Dec. 5th: Christmas at Pinewood is quite a sight - Let's go see it all decked out tonight! (Pinewood is the Spanish-style mansion at Bok Tower)
This adorable mitten Advent garland
would be easy to create at home.
Dec. 6th: A small gift awaits if you follow the clue - It rests in a place where you do, too! (Each gets a special ornament that represents them somehow...our 5-yr-old loves soccer and our 3-yr-old learned how to swing by herself. I found both ornaments at Hallmark, balked at the price, then paid it so I could be done...thanks for the advice, Liz!)
Dec. 7th: Make Pine Cone Ornaments: Spray with fake snow, dab with white, gold or silver paint, add glitter...there are lots of ways to dress up a pinecone!
Dec. 8th: Sing a Christmas carol for Daddy and Mommy tonight - be sure to practice together first!
Dec. 9th: Wrap up your presents for family
And gently place them under the tree.
Dec. 10th: Bake some special cookies to share with our neighbors. (We'll do something easy like these Molasses Crinkles)
Dec. 11th: Let's make a Christmas pizza with RED, WHITE, and GREEN toppings to share with Grammy! We'll watch a Christmas movie, too!
Dec. 12th: Disney decks it's hotels lavishly for Christmas. Let's go ride the monorail and enjoy the decorations...I bet we'll find hot chocolate at the Wilderness Lodge!
Dec. 13th: A brand new Christmas book for Ben and Emma to handle
Sits in a warm, cozy spot up on the _____________. (answer: mantle)
That's all I've got for now...I will plan the rest when we get a little closer to Christmas. As events pop up that I don't know about, I will just swap out that day's activity and replace it with the event (like on Dec. 12th...is that the day of the city Christmas parade?)
What sorts of activities do you do during Advent?
8 comments:
We have a spirit box with slip with the following items:
Make hot cocoa
Take a moonlit walk
Have dinner by candlelight
Bake cookies
Have a holiday sing-along
Donate gifts to a needy family
Take a ride to look at holiday lights and decorations
Cut out paper snowflakes
Make a popcorn string
Simmer mulling spices
Make orange pomander balls
Take an egg nog break
Put evergreens and other seasonal greens around your house
Read O. Henry’s Gift of the Magi
Gaze at the winter stars
Have a holiday dance party
Share your favorite holiday memories with your kids
Call 2 people you love and tell them why you love them
Make homemade soup
Cuddle under a blanket
Enjoy a cup of tea together
Make resolutions for the New Year
Have a late night cookie and milk break
Make a pine cone wreath
Put out food for the squirrels
Make breakfast food for dinner and eat in your pajamas
Enjoy a cup of hot cider
Take a long winter’s nap
Dress up for a special holiday dinner at your own house
Memorize a poem to recite at the dinner table
Most are goofy (and easy) and we can do more than one if we feel like it. Sometimes we draw until we find one we like. Or, if we don't feel like it, we don't do it at all. No rules...
So far, our favorite is having a holiday dance party with the kids and eating breakfast for dinner. We did both this last week and had a ball!!
Awesome list, Bryssy! Thanks for sharing it. The holiday dance party sounds like a great excuse to dress up and have some serious fun (not that we ever need an excuse for that!).
Glad you all are enjoying this holiday season...I like your flexibility on the activity drawing, too!
I'm giving myself a break this year. Every night we put our advent ornament on our tree (a homemade advent calendar that's been in my family since Iwas a kid), and read out of our advent book, but that's the extent of our daily activies. By the time I get the kids home from school, homework done, dinner cooked and eatten, baths, and bedtime, we simply don't have time for anything else. So I am not stressing this year and just relaxing.
Of course we will do many of the things you have listed, lots of baking, Christmas movies, Caroling, wrapping gifts together, giving to a needy family....but I don't have it planned out, we will just do what works when it works.
I'm keeping it simple!
Donna, I just checked and the LW Christmas parade is Saturday the 12th at 6 pm. All of you girls are invited to sit on our front porch and watch them line up...we see most of the parade without any wait since they line up on Park Ave.
That sounds great! Thanks! I'll get back with you to let you know for sure if we're sticking around for the parade or not. If we do, I'll bring something yummy!
I love this idea... I will have to send a note to my future self to make one for next year! : )
Fawnda, could you tell your future self to remind me to do this too! If I write a note to myself, I know I'll never find it. Your much more organized than me!
Donna, I LOVE this idea. I cannot pull it off this year, but I think I may try it next year. My kids would love it. And it would actually help me organize all the holiday happenings into fun daily activities. Thanks for sharing.
A great details of list to enjoy holiday season, so much fun. Thanks for your blog.
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