This marks our fifth year of the Advent Activity Calendar. I love the tradition this has created. Rylee remembers it now and has asked for it for the last 2 years. Reese isn’t there yet, but when she got home from daycare last night and saw it all set up, she was super excited. And Lincoln? Well, as with any third born, he’s still just along for the ride at this point.

My plan was to get it all set up after the kids went to bed on the night of November 30, so that when they woke up December 1 it would be waiting for them. Alas, in true “World’s OKAYest Mom” fashion, it didn’t happen like that. But I DID manage to get it set up during my lunch break yesterday (working from home has such great perks), so it was waiting for them when they got home from school. On December first! So still a win in my book!

Being that this is the 5th year we’ve done this, I tried to mix in some new activities along with the standard favorites. I’m marking the new ones with a * in my list below.

Here’s the list of what we’re doing this year:

December 1: Make beaded candy canes. – Think pipe cleaners and plastic beads.*
December 2: Reindeer Games – Play pin the nose on the reindeer – a game kit I found at JoAnne Fabrics.*
December 3: Deck the halls!
December 4: Go shopping for the local food pantry. – Every year the elementary school does a food drive for our little community. I give each kiddo $10 to buy food.
December 5: Do you wanna build a snowman? – Decorate bedroom doors like snowmen.
December 6: Elf Yourself! – use a photo of your face/head and create a body/hat/etc to look like an elf*
December 7: Gingerbread Dice Game
December 8: Melt Snowflakes – remember those little plastic beads you melted with an iron when you were younger? Those.*
December 9: Giving Tree – choose a tag off the giving tree and shop for it
December 10: SANTA project shopping – SANTA stands for Sharing Among Neighbors Toy Appeal – another local community project. Each kiddo gets $10 to buy various stocking stuffers to donate to the program.
December 11: Go get a Christmas tree!
December 12: Decorate the Christmas tree
December 13: Make popsicle stick trees*
December 14: Winter activity book – whatever holiday themed activity book(s) I can find in the Dollar Spot at Target.
December 15: Preschool Christmas program!
December 16: Paint snowflakes – big wooden snowflakes I picked up at JoAnne’s.*
December 17: Family Christmas movie night!
December 18: Family baking day
December 19: Wrap Teacher gifts
December 20: Decorate a gingerbread family
December 21: Eat snowman pancakes
December 22: Read Christmas books by the fire with hot cocoa – we get a new Christmas book (or two) every year
December 23: Go look at Christmas lights
December 24: Write a letter or draw a picture for Santa
December 25: Time to celebrate!