This year we are making a big deal out of Advent. I am totally overcompensating for the fact that there are no cousins, no nieces and nephews, no aunts, no uncles and no grandparents around, and on as tight a budget as possible, I’m trying to make every day of Advent special in one way or another.
In order to do this we are starting each day with a toy advent calendar, a book advent calendar and an activity advent calendar. We try to marry up the book advent with the activity advent, so if the characters in the book make biscuits, we make biscuits. If they decorate their tree, we decorate ours, and so on. Sometimes the link is only a tenuous one, but a link none the less. It’s more about the togetherness than the actual activity really.
To make our activity calendar as fun as possible, I start by making a list of everything that’s happening around us. Friends are having a Christmas party? There’s a community candlelight walk? There’s a community carols by candlelight? The cathedral in town has a Christingle ceremony? Christmas market? Santa cruises? All these things go on my list and in the calendar. That way I can pre-buy tickets to make December a little less costly. I can also look through the Christmas books and see which stories would marry up with what’s happening in the area, then I number those books with the date of the activity – A ‘Jack Frost’ matinee show at the theatre on 10 December would mean I label the Jack Frost book Number 10.
It’s a fair bit of work and planning and it’s a good idea to have backups like craft activities in case weather, sickness or just not feeling like it change the plans.
- Act out the nativity story with a nativity scene
- Attend “Carols by Candlelight”
- Attend a Christmas concert
- Attend a Christmas parade (or watch on TV/YouTube)
- Attend a Christmas market
- Attend Christmas Eve Mass at a beautiful cathedral
- Build a snowman together
- Bundle up and go on a sleigh ride
- Buy bargain events and activities on websites like Wowcher, Groupon, Living Social, and Little Bird
- Buy easy and ready made craft kits – for example Lidl and various Pound shops have small Christmas craft kits, and Baker Ross too
- Clean out your toy boxes and donate good quality items to a charity shop
- Colour a Christmas picture or make a Christmas craft
- Create Christmas messages and videos using Portable North Pole – one for the day you post a letter to Santa, one for a few days before Christmas, one for Christmas eve… loads to choose from
- Cut or pick up a Christmas tree
- Deck the halls with boughs of holly
- Decorate a gingerbread house
- Decorate a wreath together
- Decorate the tree
- Donate tinned food to a food bank
- Dress up for dinner one night
- Drive around to look at the Christmas lights
- Fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child or similar shoe box appeal
- Go ice skating
- Go sledding
- Go to a Christingle church service
- Go to a tree-lighting ceremony
- Hang some mistletoe and give out kisses
- Have a candle lit bubble bath and pretend it’s snow!
- Have a Christmas party
- Have a snowball fight
- Have hot chocolate with candy canes
- Invite a few friends over for a cookie decorating party
- Make (or draw inside) thank you cards that are ready to be filled out after Christmas
- Make a magic elf door
- Make a snow scene with fake snow and ice crystals
- Make a family bed by the Christmas tree
- Make a handmade Christmas ornament for someone else in the family
- Make a paper garland to hang on the tree, over a door, or in the kids bedroom
- Make a photo album of your year and look through it together
- Make a silly Christmas message to send out on Christmas day
- Make Christmas cookies
- Make Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, green frosting, and sprinkles
- Make eggnog
- Make gingerbread cookies
- Make glitter snow globes out of baby food jars
- Make hot apple cider
- Make paper crowns and talk about the wise men and the gifts they brought Jesus
- Make paper snowflakes to hang from the ceiling
- Make play dough snowmen
- Make sand angels
- Make snow angel biscuits
- Make sugar crystals on a stick
- Make thumbprint snowmen
- Make reindeer food
- Participate in a local toy drive
- Read the Christmas story in the Bible
- Roast chestnuts
- Roast marshmallows inside over a flame
- Subscribe to Weekend Box (Code for free box: Luschka690) or Toucan Box (Code for free box: A1014) for the winter months. First box is free if you use those links and codes
- Visit a local farm or donkey sanctuary and talk about Mary and Joseph in the stable
- Visit Santa for photos
- Visit NORAD to track Santa
- Visit a Santa Grotto
- Watch the Nutcracker Ballet
- Write (or colour on) Christmas cards
- Write letters to Santa
60+ Activity Advent Calendar Ideas – https://t.co/MOYnM85tBg #advent #christmas #adventcalendar
60+ Activity Advent Calendar Ideas – https://t.co/MOYnM85tBg #advent #christmas #adventcalendar
60+ Activity Advent Calendar Ideas https://t.co/5iVNgppq8Z @Luschkavo
60+ Activity Advent Calendar Ideas https://t.co/5iVNgppq8Z @Luschkavo
60+ Activity Advent Calendar Ideas https://t.co/VXMtWmjbOl #projectsseries #toddlercrafts #adventcalendar #christmas