Advent Calendars

For those that follow my blog this is an article I wrote for our church Christmas magazine that I thought would be good to post here so everyone can easily access the links.

Well my friends it is Christmas time again. I like a lot of you, have a love hate relationship with Christmas. I love that it is a time to remember the birth of our Saviour, but I have an extreme dislike for the commercialism that comes with it.

When I was asked to do a craft for the Portal I wanted to do something that would help refocus us as families (with or without little ones).

These advent calendars are super easy to create and can be used year after year.

I have created a quick mini envelope calendar. You can create your own mini envelopes like I have here out of velum, or you could just buy some small gift cards with envelopes and use them. I stamped numbers on the front but you could just write them or print numbers on your home printer then cut and stick to the front of the envelope, grab some string and some mini pegs and your all done.

The next one is done with match boxes. I just wrapped them with brown paper and I added some washi tape (decorative tape) I wanted a simple look. You could use Christmas paper if you wanted it more colourful. I glued on some numbers and attached the boxes to some frayed fabric. I hot glued some Velcro dots to the fabric so I can remove the boxes for easy storage. I made a pocket on the top for some dowel to go through using some iron on hemming tape, so no sewing!

 

The notes I put in my calendars are ones that will help you reflect on this past year and focus on Birth of Christ, I also wanted this year to be super simple. I love doing crafts and looking at lights, the list goes on, but for me if I pull it out of the advent calendar and can’t do it that day, I feel like I’ve failed, so this year it is purely a reflective calendar.

Here are some suggestions for what you could put on your cards if you wanted an activity advent.

1. Act out the Nativity & read the Christmas story
2. Make homemade hot chocolate
3. Christmas movies & popcorn
4. Make & decorate sugar cookies
5. Go Christmas shopping as a family
6. Drive to see Christmas lights
7. Go ice skating
8. Have snowman pancakes for dinner!
9. Make paper snowflakes & hang in windows
10. Write letters to family
11. Deliver treats to neighbours & friends
12. Make & decorate gingerbread houses
13. Invite friends over for a Christmas sing-a-long!
14. Baking Day!
15. Spot the Nativity (How many Nativity scenes can you spot today)
16. Deliver treats to local fire stations
17. Go to Jesus Birthday Party
18.  Go for a Summer walk
19.  Stuff & stamp Christmas cards
20.  Gather friends to go Christmas carolling at a local nursing home
21. Make Christmas crafts
22. Make a sandman (I’ve adapted this from a US web site J
23. Family Game Night!
24. Make snowman soup! Hot choc with snowman kisses(mini marshmallows) stirred with a candy cane
25. Secret Santa night
26. Attend Christmas concert, play, or performance
27. Decorate Christmas tree
28. Go to library and check out Christmas books
29. Attend Christmas party
30. Make handmade ornaments

Here are a couple of web sites where you can download the cards for your advent calendars. There are lots of others around too just ask the google!

http://playfullearning.net/wp-content/uploads/Family-Reflections-Advent.pdf

http://simplykierste.com/2014/11/25-days-of-family-christmas-activities.html

http://www.1dogwoof.com/2012/11/scripture-advent-calendar.html#_a5y_p=1040244

http://idealistmom.com/2013/11/advent-calendar/

Have a wonderful Christmas

God Bless

Louise