Christmas Countdown.

By megret | November 30, 2007 at 12:26 pm | 2 comments | Muses

This year, instead of a traditional “Advent calendar,” I took a tip from a parental magazine and decided to do a paper chain. Not only a paper chain, but an activity-filled one. Every day from December 1st till the 25th, the kids can pull off a link and see what’s in store for that day. Sounds fun, and easy, too, huh? Not quite. Try finding ideas to fill 25 strips of paper online. I found many sites with three or four suggestions or ideas, but most were the same over and over, and lacked variety. I was forced to come up with my own ideas for most, and it took me a little over three days….but last night I finished it, and we stapled the chain together, links of red and green, with hidden surprises telling the kids what’s in store for every day from now till Christmas.

And I decided to share the wealth. If there’s someone out there searching for ideas like I was, maybe this will help you out a little….or a lot.

And of course, you don’t have to make an Advent chain to take advantage of some of the fun projects I’ve scraped together into a list. They are great anytime activities for anxious little hands!!

December:
1 – Read three Christmas books together.
2 – Make homemade Christmas cards for friends (their choice).
3 – Have a puppet show at bedtime (or have puppets tell the bedtime story).
4 – Get together unused toys and set aside for charity or hand-me-down.
5 – Give everyone crazy holiday hairstyles.
6 – Let children go buy $1 Store presents for recipients of their choice, then come home and let them wrap them.
7 – Read The Gingerbread Man story and then make and decorate gingerbread men cookies.
8 – Make and paint salt-dough ornaments.
9 – Make a popcorn garland for the tree.
10 – Paint paper to make bows and decorations for presents.
11 – Have a Christmas carol sing-along, complete with instruments
12 – Decorate a gingerbread house.
13 – Have a Christmas dance party.
14 – Make paper snowflakes and decorate with them.
15 – Play with “indoor snow” (flour in large tray or container).
16 – Make homemade peppermint play-dough.
17 – Family holiday movie night – popcorn and blankets in the living room.
18 – Make Christmas cookies and deliver to friends and community helpers.
19 – Ride around and look at Christmas lights.
20 – Make stained glass windows.
21 – Make a recycled Christmas card nativity scene.
22 – Make hot chocolate with all the fixings
23 – Make gold, frankincense, and myrrh crafts and camel silhouettes.
24 – Read the Christmas story from the Bible.
25 – Merry Christmas! Sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus!