I'm over the moon about this Christmas. It's my first one as a mom and I can't wait to do all the things. Even though EK is a baby, I wanted to plan a special holiday activity for our family each day leading up to Christmas. This might sound like a lot of extra stress and work, but it really wasn't! Let me walk you through our countdown set up!
First I typed out each day in December like this: (You can copy and paste mine from below to save yourself some time!)
December
1:
December
2:
December
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December
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December
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December
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December
7:
December
8:
December
9:
December
10:
December
11:
December 12:
December
13:
December
14:
December
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December
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December
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December
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December
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December
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December
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December
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December
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December
24:
Then I put in all of our already planned events such as family Christmases or church activities on their set date. If we had a planned activity already, then that would be our special Christmas activity for that day too. For example, our church does a special Christmas music service one Sunday, so I typed "Enjoy special holiday music at church" for that day. Done!
Then I thought about what things we would already be doing the month of December such as visiting Santa and the going to Dallas Arboretum.I looked at the calendar and went ahead and planned what days we would do those events. I'm so glad to have these things already on the calendar, so we don't get too busy and forget about something that we really wanted to do.
Then I filled in the remaining days with some these family activities. I tried to choose things that were inexpensive and free. Here are a few ideas:
- Read the Christmas story out of the bible.
- Listen to Christmas music all day.
- Read Christmas books. You can read about our family Christmas Book Countdown.
- Stay in Christmas PJs all day.
- Watch a Christmas movie.
- Look at Christmas lights, walk or drive!
- Play with a nativity scene. This will be EK's Happy December Gift. A Happy December Gift is a little gift that you can give on December 1 to be enjoyed all season. It can be a book, a holiday movie or a toy, etc. This would be a great Happy December Gift for a little one too! We already have it at our house!
- Make and decorate Christmas cookies.
- Wrap presents.
- Shop for the angel tree.
- Eat a candy cane. (EK can have a little lick!)
- Drink hot chocolate.
- Wear Santa hats.
- Make a family ornament.
- Color a page in a holiday coloring book.
- Sit by the fire.
- Visit a Christmas tree farm.
- Play BINGO with friends.
- Buy coffee for the car behind you.
- Decorate a tree in your neighborhood.
- Make a Santa pancakes or another special
- Look at the Christmas tree in your town.
After all of the activities are planned you need to put them in an advent calendar of some sort! I was feeling crafty and bought a make your own felt kit from Michael's. I enjoy doing things like this, so it was fun for me! If you don't enjoy stuff like that, buy one! This is a great one for littles! Or you can even just print out your family activities on red or green paper and tape them on the refrigerator. It's not about creating more work and things to do. It's about slowing down and taking time to make memories and traditions with your family.
Happy Holidays!
