Advent Activity Calender

We pulled our our Advent house to start the countdown to Christmas at the beginning of the month. Last year I filled each door with some kind of treat like candy, sticker, tiny toy but I had a change of heart this year and stated something new...Advent Activities. Each day was a different activity for us to do as we await Christmas Day. I thought I would have trouble finding 24 activities but after searching Pintrest, I found more than enough. Then I tried to find a balance between fun, family and faith. Some things were just for fun, some we did as a family and some centered around the birth of Jesus.

A few of the days were easy, things we already had planned, like "get our Christmas tree and put lights on" or "watch Charlie Brown's Christmas" that I knew was coming on a certain night.  We also have plans to "ride a cable car and see the Christmas lights" coming up.  And there was one day that I was so busy, I forgot to put the activity in and had to sneak some M&Ms in before they opened the door. I'm not going to post pics of every event we did...but here is a snippet.

A few family thing we did were "make hot chocolate and stir it with a candy cane", "wear Santa hats to dinner", "light advent candles" and "Christmas family movie night."  The kids picked out Muppets Christmas.

Then there were all the crafts!  We made Christmas wreaths out of bows, cinnamon dough ornaments, Big Bright Stars, and cookies for Santa!

The cinnamon dough ornaments were really fun and made the whole house smell like Christmas!  We just used the salt dough recipe and loaded it up with cinnamon and ginger...mmmmmm

Then there were the things we did with or for others...like "make cards for you teachers", "call Grandparents and singing Christmas Carols", and "decorate gingerbread houses with Lucia"...thank goodness for my glue gun.  We glued the crackers together this year so we wouldn't have to deal with the houses falling down while trying to decorate them.

And there was a treat or two a few days like "new books under the tree."  One of our Sunday school teachers recommended these book...so far Santa's Favorite Story has been a huge hit.

All and all I think the kids have loved the activities over little treats.  It gives them something to look forward to each day, starts conversations about the real meaning of Christmas and gets us involved with our family and friends.  We still have a few more doors to open in anticipation of Christmas Day!!