Soon it will be December 1 which means a countdown to Christmas in our family, and the start of our advent calendars.
If you’ve been following me for some time, you may already know this is a long standing tradition. A 25 days of Christmas activities calendar. We have been doing a family activity calendar since our kids were toddlers/babies.
It began in 2009 (when I read about it from a fellow blogger here in Ottawa – thanks Andrea!) and since then, it’s become a beloved tradition. Every year we update the list a little bit based on our own family’s plans, and as the kids grow. There are some that stick around every year because we love them, and others are there because to be honest, they are easy.
We kept our calendar going last year, even though a lot of our activities had to change (since so much was closed and we weren’t seeing family indoors!) but I am looking forward to the resurgence of the calendar in 2021.
As with other years, here are some tips I’m sharing about creating your own activity calendar:
a) Don’t put dates on the activities. You may need to switch them up once and a while if something changes, illness hits etc.
b) Stock up on the stuff you need for each activities like hot chocolate or craft supplies.
c) Check your family calendar and add in activities to the 25 Days countdown list that you already know you’ll be doing – like Santa letters or a family visit. This list is also created in close consultation with my calendar based on days of the week– some activities can’t be done easily on a weekday so I made sure they were on the weekend.
What’s most important about this calendar isn’t that you put too much effort into crafting the perfect activity, it’s that as a family you come together and take a few moments each day to celebrate and spend time doing something together that is festive, fun and family oriented.
That’s probably why I love it so much.
This calendar doesn’t work if you stress about it!
This year’s calendar once again reflects the age and stage we are at now, but if you search ’25 days of Christmas’ on my blog search bar you’ll find all our other years so if you have toddlers and preschoolers, you can use some of the ideas we had back then.
And again, I explain the singing:
You’ll notice my list has a few spots where the activity for the day is to simply sing a Christmas song. My kids have requested these be removed but nope – they stay. Why? Because honestly, some days are busy, or tiring, or I’m just overwhelmed so having a few ‘freebie’ days means that we still get to do an activity, but it’s extremely simple. It works!
As much as I love the holidays, I’m also a big fan of slowing things down, so when it gets to be too much, give yourself permission to skip a day (or just sing a song!) There are no real rules here. Focus on the fun, and time together.
- Write letters to Santa (even with no believers in the house, they asked to keep this!)
2. Watch a Muppet Christmas Carol, the Holiday Movie Kick Off
3. Write a special Christmas greeting to your sibling and mail it to them (it will be a nice read when they receive it!)
4. Get the Christmas Tree
5. Decorate the Christmas Tree!
6. Christmas game!
7. Sing Jingle Bells
8. Dessert for Supper, Supper for Dessert
9. Hot Chocolate Bar
10. Cumberland Village of Lights
11. Special Craft Activity Day
12. Decorate Ginger Bread Houses
13. Sing Frosty
14. Shop for/Order toys for Toy Mountain and drop off
15. Make a list of ten things we are thankful for.
16. Taffy Lane!
17. Sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas!
18. Make paper snowflakes
19. Holiday Scavenger hunt around the house
20. Play Family Christmas Charades
21. Decorate Christmas cookies!
22. Make a donation to the local food bank
23. Bring in snow and make maple taffy!
24. Unwrap one present (mom and dad get to pick which one)
25. It’s Christmas Day. Remember you have a family who loves you. And that’s the most important gift of all.
