Advent Calenders

Christmas, like all holidays, are completely reborn for me now that I am a mom. I get to experience that intense expectation and excitement again…this time by watching my kids. So, now that our Halloween costumes have been worn to shreds, it is time to start preparing for the great crusade toward Christmas.

This year, I am taking the idea of the wonderful Amber Carvan of Kids Craft Weekly, and making an advent calender with my family.

In this issue of Kids Craft Weekly, (a free newsletter of great crafty ideas to do with kids) Amber presents a bunch of ideas for making your own advent calenders. The idea is to create a series of little containers or papers for each day of December, each with an activity, treat, or sweet inside.

Small Envelope Advent

I look forward to this being a way for me to stay focused on enjoying and celebrating the holiday season, instead of focusing (and sometimes stressing) about the build up towards the big Christmas morning.

She also has a bunch of ideas for activities to put inside your advent calender:
Paint everybody’s toenails in Christmas colours.
Make Christmas cards.
Make Christmas ornaments.
Set up the Christmas tree.
Make gift tags.
Bake Christmas cookies and decorate them.
Purchase a present to give to charity.
Have a picnic for dinner.
Go out to look at Christmas lights after dark.
Write a letter to Santa.
Make gifts for teachers.
Hold a family disco.
Go out somewhere special for dinner.
Eat fancy ice creams after dinner.
Watch a Christmas movie before bed.

We are going to make our calender out of mini-chinese take-out boxes. Bundle has zillions of these boxes, so if anyone wants to join in the fun feel free to pick up the boxes from us

Thanks so much to Kids Craft Weekly – a great newsletter to sign up for and lots of e-books with great ideas too