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I’ve been creating activities-based advent calendars for Olivia for the past several years. She gets a kick out of each day’s surprise, and I suffer from an endless need to plan things. (Can I get a witness, type A friends?) It’s a win-win.
Perks of Making Your Own
The activities you plan can be super cheap or totally free if you, like us, are tightening your purse strings.
You can go as Pinterest-perfect or as bare-bones as you want. (This year our advent calendar involved paper lunch bags, stationary I happened to have lying around, a marker, clothespins, and some string. I didn’t even bother using my best handwriting because my kids won’t notice or care.)
You can emphasize bonding time, acts of service, gross motor skills, reading practice, or whatever else you think would benefit your kid(s).
What Activities Might You Include?
In years past, I’ve planned outings to Christmas plays, school concerts, tree lighting ceremonies, and other fun stuff that we could do in public before the world fell apart. This year I kept our adventures simpler.
Fun seasonal food and drinks
Sip hot apple cider.
Drink cocoa with candy canes.
Eat “reindeer droppings” (chocolate doughnut holes) for breakfast.
Make Christmas cookies. (Save some to leave out for Santa.)
Plan a special breakfast on Christmas morning.
Decorate
Decorate the tree.
Decorate the house (wreath, creepy figurines, etc.).
Make garland out of construction paper, and hang it absolutely everywhere.
Make paper snowflakes.
Hang Out
Make a pillow/blanket snuggle nest on the living room floor, and watch Christmas movies together. (This one recurs throughout the season, and we watch everything from the cheesy to the classic. Tip: we recommend The Christmas Chronicles and its sequel on Netflix.)
Get dressed up for Daddy/Daughter and Mommy/Daughter lunch dates. (Our 7-year-old girl needs lots of attention, and her little brother’s birthday is this month, so Aaron and I try to make sure we’re filling her up with plenty of bonding time.)
Dance in the kitchen to Christmas carols.
Drive around and look at Christmas lights. (I’ve never in my life understood what drives people to go all out with decorating their houses, but I’m 100% appreciative that those folks exist. If you’re a decorating superstar, I humbly thank you.)
Spread Kindness
Donate food to a local pantry. (We make sure Liv is involved in buying the nonperishables and dropping them off.)
Make Christmas cards. (You may want to break this into several days so your kids don’t experience card-creating fatigue from making cards for all their grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, etc.)
Make positive notes to leave in the car’s glove compartment, which we can later leave on random windshields in parking lots.
Sing carols over the phone.
Read Stuff
Check out Christmas books from the library.
Read Luke 2.
Read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. (I bought our own copy so we could read the same exact book each year. Tradition with this, for whatever reason, felt pretty important.)
Other Stuff that Doesn’t Fit into Another Category
Take a bubble bath by candlelight with Christmas tunes playing. (Liv adores this! I usually deliver her a drink in a fancy cup while she’s relaxing in the bath, and she feels for a moment that she owns the world.)
Send letters to Santa. (This might be more fun for the recipient of the letter, who is forced to respond to your kids’ many demands.)
Make bath bombs.
Alternatively…
You might be thinking adding one more thing to your holiday planning sounds excessive and stressful. If so, don’t add this! We’re all stretched thin, friend, and we won’t be doing our kids any favors by giving them anxious parents for Christmas. Your kids won’t miss what they don’t even know exists. Keep things simple, cut yourself some slack, and just do you.