I hope to do many of these activities during Advent, but I have to admit that in the past, we have skipped over a plenty due to our already busy schedule or not being prepared with the right materials that we needed. Or, imagine this, a crazy day in the house and needing to adjust the schedule! It's perfectly fine to use these kinds of lists as guidelines instead of your actual schedule. You have to go with the time you are given in a day, the materials you have on hand, and the current attitudes of your little ones. All of that plays into what will actually be included in a day. So, I hope these can be helpful ideas for you as you plan a wonderful Advent with your family!
1. A night of Tree Trimming, complete with egg nog and A Muppet Christmas Carol (or a traditional movie that you always watch with your family).
2. Write a family Advent prayer. (include hopes that you have for the next year together. Put it in a special place ~ we have an ornament that houses ours).
3.
Make a Christmas banner (or some other decoration for the house that everyone can help with).
4.
Do an Advent devotional with your family. Here is a simple one to get started.
5.
Make salt dough ornaments. Add beads on them to make them super cute!
6.
Make string snowballs.
7.
Bake egg nog pancakes together.
8.
Make cardboard carolers with you family's pictures.
9. Make gift coupon books for family members.
10.
Nativity Lapbook and other
tot printables.
11. Make gifts for the grandparents...
photo block ornaments or a
wooden photo block to display precious little pictures.
12. Participate in a canned food drive.
13. Host an ugly Christmas sweater party and give silly awards to the ugliest.
13.
Make gingerbread houses, really graham cracker houses, which are perfect for little ones (or big ones!) to decorate and display. And homemade cinnamon hot chocolate to give you sustenance while you are working. PIC
14.
Read Christmas storybooks aloud. Our favorites include: Who is Coming to our House? By Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff, One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Rick Osborne, The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg, Jacob’s Gift by Max Lucado, My Merry Christmas and the Real Reason for Christmas Joy by Sally Lloyd Jones and Annika's Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis.
15. Have a Christmas Cookie Exchange with some girlfriends.
16. Sing Christmas songs together around the fire. Pick a new song to sing each week.
17.
Living Nativity (if you live in College Station). They take the kids back to the time that Jesus was born with animals in a petting zoo, camels, and a manger scene.
18. Go caroling at a local nursing home. This is such a delight to them!
19. Neighborhood party. We make sugar cookies to let the kids decorate at the party, have some sort of ornament craft and a kids' Christmas movie (our favorite is
Boz Christmas) projected onto our garage door. We invite all the neighbors and are able to meet some new ones.
20.
Make Cinnamon Cider to enjoy and fill your home with yumminess.
21. Wrap Christmas presents together. Messy or not, let the kids help out with this and as you wrap, pray that this will be a blessing to the recipient. The kids love to pick out paper, ribbons, and gift tags.
22. Make and decorate cookies together. Have prizes for most creative, most detailed, most unique, most festive.
23.
Select gifts from Gospel For Asia together. We love this tradition and love that the kids are enjoying it too. We let the kids pick out one to two items and we also pick out several items from the catalog. After you select the items, they will send your children a card saying that they have given the "Gift of Love" and thanking them.
24. Make Christmas handprints. We love to do this each year and keep them so we can compare year to year.
25. Deliver gifts together. Great way to get kids involved in the process is to take them with you as you deliver and let them what great joy it brings to your heart to give!
26.
Make Christmas placecards. Just have your kids write names in the blank spaces. If you have very little kids. Make dots and let them fill in the lines.
27.
Make glitter glue stars and tell your children how the wise men followed the star.
28. Christmas Eve Pajamas and surprise jammy ride with hot chocolate to look at Christmas lights.
29.
Act out the Christmas story. Improvise with fabric, rope, dish towels and headbands. It's more fun that way.
30. Celebrate Jesus' birth! Bake a cake, sing "Happy Birthday", blow out candles, and give Him gifts. Rejoice!
