DIY: Making Memories Advent Calendar

11:46 PM

DIY: Making Memories Advent Calendar


Now that my little boy is 2 and a half, and has a pretty good understanding about Christmas this year, I wanted to start establishing family traditions and making Christmas memories. Thanks to the many lovely ladies who entered the burlap and lace tree skirt giveaway I have been inspired my the many fabulous family traditions that were shared, and I must confess I am stealing a few of the wonderful ideas for my own family!

One tradition that I have wanted to start is that of an Advent calendar. I wanted to count down the days until Christmas in a way that would be memorable. Here is what I did...

Step 1: Number small envelopes 1-25. (These are sold at Walmart in a box of 25 conveniently.)

Step 2: Think of 25 Christmas activities that you can do with your children and family. Below is a list of the activities that I decided would be fun to do with my little dude.




Dec. 1st - Let’s make a paper chain to help us count down the days until Christmas.
Dec. 2nd -You get to open a new book and then we can read it as a family.
Dec. 3rd -Tonight we will take out the nativity and talk about the true meaning of Christmas.
Dec. 4th-It’s time we write a letter to Santa Clause and send it to the North Pole.
Dec. 5th-It’s time to sing some Christmas Carols and drink Apple Cider.
Dec. 6th-Tonight we get to watch the movie, Frosty the Snowman.
Dec. 7th-Let’s make a yummy snowman pizza for dinner.
Dec. 8th-Open this puzzle and we will put a it together as a family.
Dec. 9th-Today we will make paper snowflakes and hang them in the windows.
Dec. 10th-Let’s write Christmas Cards.
Dec. 11th-Let’s visit the local nursing home and deliver the Christmas cards that we made yesterday.
Dec. 12th-With mommy and daddy’s help we will make a gingerbread Christmas train tonight.
Dec. 13th-It’s time to make Muddy Buddies and give them to our buddies.
December 14th-Put on your pajamas. Let’s drive around and look at neighborhood lights.
December 15th- Let’s drink Hot Cocoa and watch Dr. Seuss’s, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
December 16th -Let’s surprise daddy for a special Christmas lunch.
December 17th-Send out family Christmas Cards.
December 18th-Today we will practice singing Jingle Bells, and do a surprise performance for Mima and Papa.
December 19th-You get to Unwrap another book. Let’s read is as a family.
December 20th-It’s time to make Christmas Cookies
December 21st-Let’s give cookies to our neighborhood friends. It will make us feel happy.
December 22nd-I can’t wait to Watch, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer as a Family tonight.
December 23rd-Santa and his reindeer are coming soon. Let’s make Reindeer food to get ready for Santa’s flying friends.
December 24th- Get your swimming suit on and get ready to go swimming. We are going to get all our wiggles out before Santa Clause comes tonight.
When we get home we get to read two special stories.
**Luke 2: 1-20 to remind us about the true meaning of Christmas and, The Night Before Christmas to get us ready for Santa.
December 25th- Today we will remember baby Jesus and Watch the Nativity movie as a family.
Step 3 - Stuff envelopes with the written activity as well as an object or picture that can go along with the given activity.

See Examples below...





Step 4 - Seal envelopes and place in a basket or container of some sort. I think I will store this little basket under my tree. Now each day we have a fun surprise activity to look forward to as a family as we count the days down until Christmas.



I think this will be a wonderful way to count down the days until Christmas. I am excited to spend time with my family this holiday season and remember the true meaning of Christmas while having fun and feeling the Christmas Spirit. Tis the Season!

Happy Christmas!


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Sisters Meg and Steph discovered that while living the life of poor, newlywed, college students, with fresh little babies in the middle of The Great Recession they could still have what they needed and wanted if they got to work and created things with their own hands. This mindset has saved them thousands of dollars in living expenses, and as they share their knowledge with others, the savings keeps growing.

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5 comments

  1. My boy and INovember 29, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    Super cute Megan!!! I will forsure be doing something like this when Olivia is a a bit older!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 29, 2011 at 2:58 PM

    Love this idea! I will so be bookmarking this for when I have kids or maybe doing something like that with my husband but with different activities. Not all different I'm still a kid at heart! I never go a christmas without watching rudolph also! :) Thanx for sharing!

    Natalie
    www.projectdowhatyoulove.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. do it yourself divasNovember 29, 2011 at 7:37 PM

    How did you cut out those numbers so cute, meg? You scissor hands.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CassDecember 10, 2011 at 7:19 AM

    Fantastic idea!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownDecember 20, 2011 at 12:35 AM

    I LOVE your advent calendar ideas! I found it really hard to think of ideas - there's more ideas on the web for northern hemisphere/winter ideas. I posted about mine here: http://kedakeda.blogspot.com/2011/12/advent-calendar.html

    ReplyDelete