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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

It's Coming....

Christmas is right around the corner! Last year I started celebrating Advent with my kids, both as a countdown the Christmas and as a time to talk about why we celebrate Christmas. I made a calendar last year out of toilet paper tubes. This year I am unsure of how I will make our calendar (yeah I know I should really get that together!) but I do have ideas on how we will celebrate. I like to do activities each day, not open gifts. I don't feel like having my kids open gifts for 24 days is a way to teach them about advent. I'd rather do activities together (both secular and religious) and talk about why we celebrate Christmas, that it is more than just Santa and getting gifts.

This is the list I have so far:
*make an advent wreath using our handprints and "light" a paper candle each week
*pick out our tree as a family
*decorate our tree together
*make cookies for friends
*make candy for friends
*family movie night
*make our own hot chocolate (if it comes out okay we will share with others)
*make jingle bell bracelets
*make reindeer using our hand and foot prints
*make marshmallow snowmen (after reading a story about a snowman)
*make noodle wreaths
*make cinnamon ornaments to give as gifts
*decorate a gingerbread house
*make a gumdrop Christmas tree
*Christmas coloring page
*visit Bright Nights
*make beaded candy cane ornaments
*handprint santa
*pinecone Christmas tree
*make an angel using hand and foot prints
*make an egg carton bell for our tree
*read a Christmas story
*read the gingerbread man and decorate gingerbread man cookies
*have breakfast with Santa


Last year I put slips of paper with the activities written on them along with candy in our advent calendar. The above list is not the order I will use the activities, I arrange them based on our schedules (busy days do not get creative activities). I will post pictures of our crafts as we make them.

Share your advent calendar and activity ideas please! I am looking for inspiration.

1 comment:

Gwen said...

I enjoy reading your blog, I think I stumbled upon it from Menu Mondays. I also am going to do simple advent things with my boys, while they are older, we will be doing many of the same type of things. I also wrap 31 books (the same books each year). Each night they take turns choosing a wrapped book from the basket and we read it just before bed. It has been 11 year and we are still acquiring our Christmas books one or two a year. We live in the Northern region so some of our books are just about snow and winter also.