It’s no secret that I dislike winter because of the cold and dark. But I love Christmas! As a secular British family – albeit with a Church of England background for me – we weave together various strands. The Solstice, the lights, the family celebrations, decorations, both natural and bright, carols, the food.
Every year we are look forward to starting celebrations in December with advent calendars. We have a cute little wooden Advent house with 24 drawers that I fill with candy, trinkets or little activity slips.
This year I’m printing little slips of ‘Advent Challenges’ for the kids to do – or not – each day. It’s a mix of outdoor activities, indoor activities, activities the kids can do independently and activities we will do together.
If you don’t have a fill-yourself advent calendar, then this would work by folding the slips or putting them in little envelops and pegging them to a string, or just stick them to a pre-made advent calendar.
These challenges could be randomly assigned or you can decide on specific days for certain activities, like me. ‘Making a snowman’ for example, is going into the drawer for a day I know we will be in the mountains. ‘Deliver treats to a friend/neighbor’ is coming the day after ‘Make Christmas cookies’ for us, but could be a separate unrelated treat.
Many of the activities are flexible…
- ‘Make a snowman’ could be a real snowman outside, a real snowman on a tray inside if it’s too cold outside or even a painting or a paper and cottonwool snowman decoration if you don’t have snow!
- ‘Make paper trees’ could be 2 simple tree shapes with a slot cut into the top of one and the bottom of the other, or a more complex craft making a tree decoration out of a magazine (google ‘magazine christmas tree craft’).
- ‘Make a wooden tree ornament’ could be making stars out of 5 twigs and twine or decorating a pre-cut branch disc/tree slice or a wooden snowflake ornament kit.
- ‘Make and hang bird feeders’ could be so many things: tie a twine loop to a pinecone, then roll the pinecone in nut butter and bird seeds; halve an orange, scoop out the flesh, poke 3 holes near the rim to tie string onto and then fill the orange half with bird seed and nut butter or coconut oil; even poke 3 evenly spaced holes near the rim of a plastic tub to tie string onto, then fill with bird seed.
- ‘Decorate a tree for birds/squirrels’ can be all sorts of critter safe edibles (dried orange slices, salt/sugar-free popcorn garlands, little bird feeders, dried cranberry garlands) but also ornaments – just keep them to natural materials unless it’s on your property and you can gather up any metal or plastic after the holidays.
- ‘Make Solstice lanterns’ could be tissue paper lanterns stretched over a wooden frame or a balloon, cut paper origami lanterns or jars with tissue paper or construction paper shapes stuck on with Mod Podge and string or wire wrapped around the top to make a handle.
Download the activities (and a few blank cards so you can swap out activities for something more appropriate to your family) by clicking on the image below.
Some suggestions to swap in if something doesn’t work for your family are: walk around the block in a funny hat; collect the mail & wave at everyone; make a nature table centerpiece; make s’mores outside; draw an elf; write to your grandparents; make wrapping paper; watch a holiday show.
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