Some of you have asked about this tradition of ours. Well, here it is!During November, I get out my calendar for December and plan a family activity for each day of December 1st through Christmas Day. I write the activities down in a special secret calendar, so only my husband and I know the activities. Then, I cut out little slips of paper and number them from 1-25. I write down each activity on the appropriate slip and fold it and loop it before attaching to the tree, making sure the number is visible. On December 1st, your children can take turns finding the number, taking it off the tree and seeing what the activity will be. Since we are all busy people, sometimes evenings are not good. Some of our activities have been in the morning and have been 5 minutes long. It should just work around your schedule and be something fun, memorable and/or inspirational for the Christmas season! If you have to make changes, it is not hard to look in your calendar and change out a slip of paper to something else. Here is a sample of some activities that our family has done in the past:
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| Make a Nativity scene out of pipe cleaners! |
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| SNOWBALL FIGHT! Beforehand, crumple up lots of newspaper into "snowballs"and gather them in large garbage bags. Dump them out and let em' fly all over the house! |
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| Make and decorate Christmas cookies! |
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| Package up the cookies and deliver them to neighbors with the whole family and wish them a merry Christmas! |
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| Get some new clay or play dough, go to your favorite coffee shop and mold something together! |
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| Choose a compassion plan or cause that your family will give to. Then come up with a plan to raise money for it. We have had a hot cocoa and hot cider stand out in our court and let people know to come by and get a drink for a good cause. |
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| Attend a Christmas Eve church gathering together. |
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| Go early to a donut shop and play your favorite card game together! |
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| Make a fort out of furniture and blankets and sleep in it together! Other ideas we've done: |
*Christmas Caroling with friends in a neighborhood
*Buy and wrap a present for a child in need
*Invite a family over for dinner and watch a Christmas movie
*Read a Christmas story and drink eggnog together
*Make up Christmas Mad Libs to Christmas songs
Like it. So much more to Christmas than opening presents . . . not that there's anything wrong with that! :-)
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