We've always loved decorating, baking, and crafting together during the holidays, but this was our first year using an advent calendar to space them out and we are absolutely loving it! It takes a little planning ahead, but makes gathering supplies and spacing things out so much easier. Plus, the boys get so much joy from checking it each morning. Our advent calendar is mostly activities this year, with some gifts sprinkled in. We might do more gifts some years and more activities others, I love how our Goumi pocket advent calendar (similar) allows for making it whatever you want! I used some plain kraft paper cards to make our activity cards and my Golden Coil Planner to keep track of everything for myself. (I created an advent calendar gift guide on my instagram stories - find them in my "gifts" highlight on my instagram profile. I started by first planning out any family gatherings/events that had dates that were set in stone. Then I added activities to our weekends that I knew we'd want to do as an entire family (like watch movies, hang lights, make big breakfasts). Then I started adding in the rest of our activities loosely in this order; getting ourselves cozy, decorating the house, and then crafts and baking. I sprinkled in a few gifts and other activities to help space out some of the activities that take a little more planning (for sanity). Here is our 2021 Advent activity list with resources and inspiration (and I included a list of extra ideas below too!) 1. New Christmas Pajamas - We got ours from Plain Jane 2. Add New Ornaments to the tree - I pick out a special ornament every year for each kid. My favorite places to look are Craftspring, Love of Character, Anthropologie, and West Elm 3. Coffee Filter Snowflakes - Hang with tape on a sunny window for extra magic. Inspired by Amanda Pahls. Here is a nice tutorial. 4. Go see a Christmas Lights Display - We went to our local arboretum. 5. Hang up twinkle lights at home 6. Small Gift (Hotwheels Mario Cars) 7. Make Dried Orange Slice Garlands - We have been making ours for a few years, but Megan Alexandra just made a beautiful DIY blog post. The kids were in charge of stringing ours this year and I love them even more than previous years. 8. Make Sugar Cookie Dough - We use this recipe for the dough. 9. Decorate Sugar Cookies - We used these kits (here and here) this year and then made frosting by adding in a tiny bit of water at a time to a cup of powdered sugar + food coloring. 10. Read a New Christmas Book - We got Tiny Reindeer by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros this year. You can find my full list of Christmas Books Here. 11. Watch a Holiday Movie together and eat popcorn - We chose The Polar Express this year. 12. Christmas Pancakes - We modeled ours loosely after these this year. 13. Christmas Crafts Day 1 - We are making Baking Soda Clay Ornaments and Pine Cone Christmas Trees this year. We are using this recipe from Evermorelong for our ornaments and modeling our Pine Cone Christmas Trees after these. 14. Christmas Crafts Day 2 - Sometimes paint takes awhile to dry. We're allotting a second day to wrap things up if needed or I might pull from our extra activities. 15. Small gift (Puzzle) 16. Make Popcorn/Cranberry Garlands and Bird Seed Pine Cones for the birds - We'll read Wake up, dormouse, Santa Claus is here by Eleonore Schmid before creating and then we plan to pick a spot to hang them up in the yard. This book was a gift from David's mom that his Grandma had brought back from London. Its about a little dormouse who wants to stay up to meet Santa Claus. Santa visits the woodland animals and brings them food to eat each Christmas. It's super cute. 17. Make Christmas Cards - We plan to use their handprints this year and then have Emmet write some cute notes to family. 18. Clark Family Christmas - We will be out of town for a few days to be with family - That gets to be the advent activity for all three days. 19. Clark Family Christmas 20. Clark Family Christmas 21. Bundle up for a Christmas lights walk in the neighborhood - We'll pull the kids around in the wagon and then make hot cocoa after. 22. Small gift (lego guys) 23. Add Wishes to the Christmas Tree - This is a new tradition that we are starting. We'll read The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear and then tie little wishes to the tree. 24. Make Orange Cinnamon Rolls - My family always made orange pillsbury cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning growing up. I plan to make this recipe from Half Baked Harvest but swap out the lemon zest for orange zest. I've made her basic cinnamon roll recipe before and it was delicious, but I haven't tried orange cinnamon rolls on my own before. I'll report back. 25. Open Presents and spend the whole day together. Backup Activities:
-Pick a Christmas Tree - We get ours from our family's pasture. We got ours before December 1st or it would have made the list (Read - Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht) -Decorate the Christmas Tree - This can be done the same day - but we are usually racing the sunset to get ours and need a second day for decorating. -Amanda Jane Jones Origami Ornaments - My kids are still a little bit too little, but we'll make these in the future. -The Mitten by Jan Brett - Read and reenact with wooden or plastic animals. We like schleich, holztiger, and ostheimer. -Paper Bag Snowflakes - A Beautiful Mess -Salt Dough Santas hands -Gingerbread Playdough -Visit Santa and/or a local nativity - Depending on how you celebrate Christmas, these could totally go on the list. -Pick out gifts for siblings/friends -Wrap Gifts together -Construction Site: Merry and Bright Inspired Sensory Bin - Read Construction Site: Merry and Bright by Sherri Duskey Rinker and then create a sensory bin for the kids to play with this sensory bin idea and adding sisal wreaths, bottle brush trees, mini Christmas light necklaces, jingle bells, etc. -Little Blue Truck Christmas Playscape - Read Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Shertle and set out Farm Animals, a Blue Truck, and Bottle Brush Trees to play with. -Make Mason Jar Snowglobes - Read The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen and then make Snowglobes inspired by these.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
mama of three
in the midwest creating a home that's full of magic Follow on Instagram
@leahfayegaeddert |