Christmas activity advent calendar

This year we did an advent calendar of sorts with a Christmas-related activity for each day of December leading up the 25th. There were a few activities we didn't end up actually doing because the boys, especially Jamie, were sick towards the middle of the month. Overall it was a very fun way to incorporate a lot of different activities into our holiday celebrations.

Here were the activities we planned for each day:

1. Make paper countdown chain

2. Write letter to Santa

 
 

"Deer Santa clos
I love the prezens yuo breeing. Thai are wudrfl. I'd Lice a bag uv hcoclit coyns, a cadie cain, a toy, a dol hows and sum dols. Miu bruther wons sum plaito [play-doh].
Jamie"

He also included some pictures of presents for Santa. Cutie.

 

3. Angel Tree - Jamie picked out a toy for a boy about his age (some sort of alligator truck).

4. Cooking decorating with friends - Our friends the Tietjens came over and decorated sugar cookies with us. We had a lot of fun.

 
 
 
 

 

Jamie and Carter watching Star Wars

Thomas with his buddy Finn

5. Home Depot kids workshop

6. Put up the Christmas tree

7. Decorate your door like a snowman

8. String cotton balls to look like snow

9. Make paper snowflakes

10. Daddy's graduation and playing with cousins (I knew we wouldn't have time for anything extra that day!)

11. Christmas shopping - We went to the store so Jamie could pick out his present for Jacob. Ahead of time he decided he wanted to get a board book about Elmo, and he found a really cute one.

12. Watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version!)

13. Meet Santa - Jamie loved this and was brimming with questions to ask Santa when it was his turn. Meanwhile, Jacob hated every second of it.

 

14. Learn about Hanukkah - We read some Hanukkah books from the library, made potato latkes for dinner, and played a dreidel game.

15. Make borax snowflakes - This is one that didn't end up happening.

16. Christmas color-by-numbers

17. Make cinnamon ornaments (we used these instructions but didn't do any painting)

 

 

18. Watch Home Alone

19. String popcorn and cranberries - Didn't end up doing this one.

20. Make a gingerbread house - A huge tradition in my family! Previous editions: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.  We had a little bit of trouble this year with a cracked roof piece, but I "glued" it back together with frosting, and after it dried it was fine. It was also Jacob's first year helping, which basically meant Jacob's first time eating a ton of candy that was intended for the house. He only put on a couple of pieces; the rest went straight in his mouth! Jamie was super creative and planned almost all the decorations.

 
 
 
 
 

roofless because the frosting wasn't hard enough yet on the cracked part

 

Jamie's awesome snow fort idea

 

 

21. Drink hot chocolate - Homemade hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. Yummmmm.

22. Take a drive to look at Christmas lights - A couple of homes close to us have special light shows that are synced with Christmas music that you can tune to on your car radio. Those were awesome.

23. Make cookies for Santa - This didn't end up happening either because a large basket of Christmas cookies and brownies arrived from Thomas's Uncle Geoff that day and we decided to share those with Santa instead.

24. Read The Night Before Christmas and  the Christmas story from the Bible - more on this later!