Advent Activity Ideas

     As a child my mother did the Twelve Days of Christmas with me. I was allowed to open a small gift each day beginning December 13. These gifts were usually things like lip gloss, amazing pencils or pens, cute erasers, stickers or the like. Nothing that cost a lot, but small tokens that were fun open. This tradition continued until I was about nine and my parents were full time foster parents. Never knowing how many kids might be in your home (or their ages or genders!) made the tradition much harder for my mom to keep up with and it was forgotten. Fast forward several years and I have my own children. I considered taking up the tradition again, but honestly, I wanted something that put them into the spirit of giving and not receiving during the holiday season.

     Through the years we've tried lots of different Advent celebrations and one of my favorites was the Advent Jar. I took a large glass jar (it was my sun tea jar in the summer months) and added a festive label to it. Inside we placed activity ideas and each day the girls got to draw out one fun thing to do. I liked this option because it was a surprise for all of us, one day we might make cookies and another we would watch a favorite Christmas movie.

Here's a list of some our favorite activities through the years (and some that were date specific thanks to my OCD tendencies):

December 1: Decorate! This is the day we always put up the tree and brought out the Christmas village.
1st Saturday: Parade Day (we would walk a block over to Main Street and watch the parade and then come home to have holiday goodies with homemade hot cocoa).
December 6: Sinterklass Day - we used this as a random act of kindness day (before there was such a thing).
December 13: Saint Lucia Day - this meant holiday baking
Anytime (but has to be set up in advance): be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army
Volunteer in a soup kitchen

Advent Jar Ideas:
- making ornaments (I would put together kits for making ornaments and keep them tucked away in the pantry so that we only had to pull out a shoe box and start crafting).
- watching a favorite Christmas cartoon (we had several that they could pick from)
- visiting the light display (we would drive about 45 minutes to one and about 25 minutes to the other)
- storybook activities (this works a lot like the ornament craft kits; a book is paired with an activity and stored away together)
- making play dough (in holiday colors and scents - green was fir scented, red cinnamon and we made gold and silver with glitter added in)
- making snow globes (recycle those baby food, pickle or mayonnaise jars)
- sprinkle out birdseed and see who comes for dinner (if you make a bird feeder remember not to use peanut butter because the birds can't process it)
- visit the library and choose some new Christmas favorites
- paper snowflakes (added to windows, turned into garland, hanging from the ceiling)
- make doggie treats and toys for the shelter dogs and deliver them
- make holiday cards for the residents of a nursing home (keeping these non-faith based means they are more versatile for everyone).
- wrap presents
- dinner and a movie (dinner themed around the holiday movie)