Advent Ideas

Once Thanksgiving is over it doesn't take me very long to jump right into Christmas.

We stay pretty busy with activities, baking, crafts and lots of other holiday fun.

One thing that we started last year was an advent calendar and it was a blast.

We had a different Christmas related activity every night and it really brought our family closer together and provided a lot of fun, quality time together.

So I thought I would share some of the things we have planned for this year.

There are a lot of different ways you could set it up.

You could put everything in a jar and pull on out each day or plan the activities around your schedule.

I took a cookie sheet and covered it with Christmas scrapbooking paper.

Then I cut out 24 rectangles and folded them in half.

On the inside I wrote the activity and on the outside I wrote the date.

Then I taped them on the cookie sheet.

I had put magnets on the back of the cookie sheet to hang on the fridge but they weren't quite strong enough to hold it up.

So this year I think I will tie some ribbon on the back and hang it on the wall.

Once I get it hung up I'll take a picture for you to see.

Anyway here's what we'll be doing in December.

Learn a new Christmas song

Make homemade marshmallows and cocoa mix

Make a snowman

Make garland

Make reindeer cookies

Make a nativity

Drive around and look at Christmas lights

Do a service for someone

Have a Christmas music dance party

Watch Elf

Read the Christmas story

Write letters to Santa

Make Christmas cards

Make a ornament

Visit a friend

Watch a Christmas movie

Have someone over for dinner

Make Christmas goodies and deliver to someone

Write letters to family that's not around

Take kids to get gifts for each other

Make gift tags

Sing Christmas songs

Play a Christmas game

Make reindeer food and cookies

So that's what's on our advent calendar.

We also read a Christmas book every night

and incorporate Christ and scriptures into our activities as much as possible.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas of fun things you can do with your family during the special month of December