Have your children started to ask daily “how many more days until Christmas?” No? Just mine then? Lucky me!
We always do the old school chocolate countdown calendars because they’re awesome but if you want to amp it up a little here, are a few other ideas that you can include.
Twelve Books of Christmas
The reader and gift giver in me loves this idea. Take a stack of Christmas books you already own or purchase some new ones and wrap each book individually. Place them under the tree and then each day leading up until Christmas, have your kids choose one to unwrap and read it to them.
You can also choose to start it on December 1 and do 24 books before Christmas.
Lego Advent Calendar
Get your kids involved in this one and have them create a large Lego structure that is tall enough and wide enough to house 24 compartments. Think an apartment building sliced in half!
They can use doors, windows, or things to slide out to build the compartments. Then fill each compartment with a small treat for them to open in the days leading up to Christmas.
Crafting your way to Christmas
Here again the 12 days of Christmas or the standard 24-day countdown work well. Scour Pinterest and dollar type stores for fun Christmas crafts or projects. I then like to buy a stack of large manila envelopes and put a craft in each one.
Put a number on each envelope, put them in a decorated box and then have the kids pull the correct package for that day and complete the craft. A little organizing goes a long way for this one!
Paper bag garland
String up a long piece of twine and then fill 24 lunch size paper bags with either small treats, a fun gift or an activity to do together (like bake cookies or take a twinkle tour). Use paper clips to hang the bags on the twine (thus creating your garland) and take down a bag per day in order.
