The rainbow-colored lights glitter off the silver garland that drapes the top of the kitchen cabinets. Homemade ornaments decorate the tree in the living room. It’s that time of year when the house is transformed into something magical as we decorate for Christmas. Every year we include a Christmas Countdown in our decorations, with simple activities to do each day to get us ready for Christmas.
When I saw this cute Christmas countdown decoration in the dollar section at Target last month, I snatched that baby up like Christmas was going out of style. I couldn’t wait to fill its pockets with fun activities we could do as we countdown the days until Christmas.
After Thanksgiving the kids and I got to work coming up with simple ideas to put in the Advent calendar’s pockets. They had a few favorite activities we have done in the past that just HAD to be added, and then there were some new ideas I wanted to include as well.
I love having pockets on the calendar because it makes it super easy to swap activities if necessary. I also like to have a couple extra ideas on hand, just in case the weather doesn’t cooperate or something else crazy happens. (Like your husband finds the candy you were saving for those gingerbread houses….)
Here are our simple Christmas Countdown Ideas:
- Set up the Nativity set.
- Go on a candy cane hunt.
- Write a letter to Santa.
- Cut out snowflakes.
- Play a Christmas “Minute to Win It” game.
- Sing Christmas songs for someone.
- Make a homemade ornament for the tree.
- Build marshmallow snowmen.
- Put up stockings for St. Nicholas.
- Do a Christmas craft.
- Decorate your bedroom for Christmas.
- Make cards for soldiers.
- Bake cookies. (I included this twice. One day for our yummy sugar cookies and another for gingerbread men.)
- Make cards for your teachers.
- Go see Christmas lights.
- Have a Christmas music dance party.
- Play in snow. (If you don’t have real snow you could get some Insta-Snow
to play with indoors!)
- Make special hot chocolate to drink. (Add a bit of whipped cream and crushed candy cane or sprinkles on top!)
- Make gingerbread houses.
- Make snowmen. (If the weather doesn’t cooperate you could do a snowman craft.)
- Watch a Christmas video. (I included this twice because there are so many good ones.)
- Wrap gifts.
- See Christmas lights at the zoo. (Our zoo does a fabulous light display each year.)
- Read ‘Twas the Night before Christmas.
- Sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus.
I typed up all our ideas and printed them out to surprise the kids with the morning of December 1.
And, because I know how busy this time of year is, I’ve turned our super simple Advent ideas into a printable for my awesome readers. (That’s you!) Just click here to get your free Christmas Countdown Printable! And I’ve left a couple blank spots for ideas you and your family may come up with, too.
If you are looking for a Christmas countdown with pockets like ours, here are a few of our favorites we’ve seen on Amazon.
The tree is up, the house is all decorated, and we are ready to start celebrating the season with some fun Christmas activities tucked away in our calendar. Merry Christmas!
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Maria says
This was such a lucky find for you, Onemommy! I would have to agree that had I seen this at the store, I would’ve snatched it up as well. I love all your ideas for the countdown, especially the christmas music dance party! I think I’ll have to include that in our list of activities as well.
This was so lovely to read on #SHINEblog hop this week. Thanks so much for joining us!
BreakForMoms.com says
Love all the ideas! Found you on the Mommy Monday Blog Hop. Merry Christmas!
OneMommy says
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you all have fun with a few of the activities we’ve chosen. I know mine are both looking forward to making the marshmallow snowmen. 😉
Emma says
What a good idea to add activities to the pockets! That’s going to make a great tradition. Thanks for sharing at the Thoughtful Spot!
OneMommy says
I have to say I like the pocket calendar a lot more than the countdown chain we used to do. So much easier to switch what we are going to do if things get crazy.