December and Marking the Days

I love the month of December.  I love the preparation for the holidays.  There's the excitement of picking out a Christmas tree and decorating it.  The joy of lighting the menorah for Hanukkah and seeing my girls marvel at how beautifully the light reflects in our windows.  I love baking cookies, making presents for my children, and being with our little family.  We also try hard to remind ourselves and our children how lucky we are.

I had all this in mind when I came up with my advent calendar for this year.  Last year, I filled each day with stickers or chocolate but I wanted something a bit more meaningful.  So instead of treats, every day has a card and they say:

-Decorate the Christmas tree
-Walk around the neighborhood and look at the lights
-Interview your family and videotape it
-Send a Christmas card to a friend you don't see
-Make hot chocolate
-Do something nice for your sisters
-Have a camp out in front of the Christmas tree
-Have a family movie night
-Read The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
-Fill a bag with food to donate to the hungry
-Invite a friend over to play
-Sing Christmas carols around the piano
-Pop popcorn for a snack
-Make paper snowflakes
-Bake bread and bring it to a neighbor
-Wrap Christmas presents
-Write a letter to someone you love
-Have breakfast for dinner
-Do something nice for someone at school
-Bake cookies with Mommy
-Make an ornament for the tree
-Have a dance party with Christmas music
-Color a holiday picture
-Get out the dreidels and see how long you can make one spin
-Do something special with just Mommy or Daddy
-Read The Night Before Christmas

Any other ideas?

Comments

  1. MandyE (Twin Trials and Triumphs)November 30, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    My blog world is coming full circle tonight!

    Check out MaMe Musings' post on a similar topic...

    http://mamemusings.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-jars-with-tasha.html

    And if you click over to Tasha's blog, you can scroll down a post or two to see her Advent Calendar.

    I love the ideas you listed!!! I didn't grow up with an Advent Calendar, so I'm new to the concept. I decided to make a countdown calendar of sorts this year for our girls...I made a Christmas tree with their handprints, and I numbered 24 spots. I found some simple ornament stickers, and I'll let them add a decoration every day until Christmas.

    I'm definitely adding something along the lines of your calendar to our holiday celebration next year. How much fun for your sweet babes to get to unfold a wonderful experience every day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HeatherDecember 2, 2011 at 1:40 AM

    I LOVE your advent calendar! I am totally going to do that next year. (My 4 year old and I made a paper advent chain this year...that was the limit of my creativity.) Thanks for the great idea. Maybe by then she will actually like hot chocolate and not call it "dirty milk."

    ReplyDelete

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