Yesterday, I shared my favorite Advent calendars. Today, I thought I’d provide some help filling up your calendar of choice. I’ve decided to bite the bullet this year and go with an activity Advent.
I’ll hedge my bets, though, by including activities that fall all over the preparation level spectrum. I also fully reserve the right to switch the day’s activity when my kids’ heads are turned. That way we’re sure to have some real memory makers in the mix, but we can also keep it simple if our day is already heading south by 10 AM.
- Bake and decorate gingerbread men (because they’re so much more manageable than houses).
- Make salt dough ornaments.
- Go to a Christmas show – The Nutcracker, Zoo Lights, a Christmas toy train exhibit, etc.
- Trim the tree.
- Eat a simple snowman lunch.
- Take each child Christmas shopping for their sibling/parent/grandparent.
- Adopt a family for Christmas and go shopping for them.
- Help the kids make wrapping paper and wrap their special gifts.
- Make colored ice sculptures.
- Have a Christmas movie night, some great suggestions.
- Get the kids in their PJs and go on a late-night drive to see Christmas lights.
- Have a hot cocoa bar night.
- Attend a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony.
- Make six-sided paper snowflakes.
- Make mason jar snow globes.
- Make Candy Cane Play Dough.
- Visit Santa and get the kids’ picture on his lap (hopefully not screaming).
- Make a gift for teacher.
- Make an easy Christmas centerpiece together.
- Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- Bake something for your neighbors (we carry on my Mother-in-Law’s tradition of making Madeira wine cake – so good).
- Make ice bubbles.
- Go Caroling (nursing homes are great venues for this!).
- Read The Night Before Christmas (we love this pop up version) and bake cookies for Santa.
P.S. If you’re really looking to have the holidays in the bag this year, we’ve got two ways to help. First get the holiday shopping out of the way with all 10 of our 2015 Gift Guides here…
Second, check out our new eBook, Hands-On Holidays, packed with low-prep and low-stress ideas for make memories crafting, cooking, reading and adventuring with the kids!
