i jumped on the old Advent Box bandwagon a couple of days ago, and decided to go with round boxes (just got them from Michael’s). Elliott helped me put candies in each one:
I bought raw chipboard boxes, and ended up needing more coats of the cream colored paint than I had thought, but it wasn’t too bad - the painting went really fast, actually.
I put my Silhouette to work making the numbers. This was the first time I’d ever imported custom artwork to have it cut out, but it was pretty easy. :) I just drew a circle in Photoshop and added the numbers over the top of that in the Georgia font, my favorite numeral font. Flattened and saved them and brought them in to the Silhouette software, where I made outlines and the cutter cut them out of dark brown cardstock. It was quite a workout for all involved, but turned out really nicely. I ran them through the Xyron 900 to give them their sticky, and they attached really nicely. I love the custom look these give.
At this point, I was missing the number 14, which had rolled under the couch. Found it a few hours later and all is well. :)
If you are still looking for last-minute activity ideas, I searched around online and came up with a good list, from which I chose 24 activities.
Advent Activity Ideas
Here’s the big list I gathered up:
Paint everyone’s toenails
Have hot chocolate with all the fixings
Star gazing
Give everyone crazy hairstyles
Backyard cricket
Go out for sushi
Have an indoor picnic
Write letters to grandparents or great-grandparents
Use puppets to tell bedtime story
Have breakfast for dinner
Make decorations for the tree
Have a camp out around the christmas tree
Pack a picnic dinner and have it at a park (or Botanical Gardens)
Fancy dress for dinner time
Wrap a toy and take it to a charity christmas tree
Make handmade gift tags for relatives
Fold origami for the christmas tree
Dance like crazy to music
Watch a christmas movie with popcorn
Take Grandparents out to see the Christmas lights
Make snow men, one for each family member.
Make molassas candy on the snow.
“paint your lawn” by using food coloring on the snow.
go christmas caroling
Set up the Christmas tree.
Make gift tags.
Bake Christmas cookies and decorate them.
Go out to look at Christmas lights after dark.
Write a letter to Santa.
Make gifts for teachers.
Go out somewhere special for dinner.
bake cookies together to give to the neighbors
going food shopping and bringing that food to a soup kitchen
have a tea party
watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” together
planning your next family vacation
having a slide show of photos on a projector or DVD
playing board games
making paper snowflakes
walking a dog all together
going Christmas shopping together
working on a craft project
making handmade cards for relatives
taking photos of each other
watching the sunset
tape recording a radio show complete with interviews [this will be so great when the kids are all grown up]
having a fondue night! chocolate and cheese dipped goodies.
getting one [or two] of those unfinished wood trays from a craft store and painting them together— will come in handy when someone is sick and is in need of soup, or for a breakfast in bed!
read a christmas story together
have an indoor picnic
let the kiddos pick out whatever they want for dinner and let them help fix it
Make thumb-print animals and people with paint, add the details with a marker.
Make a gingerbread house (use graham crackers, dried fruit and peanut butter instead of candy)
Go to the thrift store/dollar store and give each child a dollar to spend on a gift for daddy/mommy/each other/his-herself (i love to see what they pick out)
Make microwave s’mores
Decorate ornaments for grandparents or neighbors
Videotape a favorite ritual or activity (dancing to songs)
Make a short questionnaire and interview everyone on video
Visit a place you’ve been meaning to go together: a museum, a walking trail, a sledding hill
Make crazy hats out of construction paper and craft supplies, and dance to songs
Go for a walk
Make a “holiday flavor” of ice cream: peppermint, pumpkin pie, egg nog, gingerbread
Decorate cutouts of trees or snowmen (I got mine here)
My Activity List
Here is my list:
- Make microwave s’mores.
- Set up the Christmas tree.
- Make clay snowmen.
- Decorate ornaments for grandparents
- Go for a bike ride
- Take photos of a favorite ritual or activity
- Make a short questinnaire and interview everyone on video
- Make homemade apple pie
- Make crazy hats out of construction paper and craft supplies, and dance to songs
- Go for a walk
- Make a “holiday flavor” of milkshake: peppermint, pumpkin pie, egg nog, gingerbread
- Make gift tags
- Decorate cutouts of trees or snowmen (I got mine here)
- Watch a christmas movie with popcorn
- Go out somewhere special for dinner
- Buy a new Christmas storybook and read it before bed
- Make cards for teachers (church and preschool)
- Make cards for grandparents and great-grandparents (Sprague)
- Make cards for grandparents and great-grandparents (Bills)
- Buy three new books or items for the trip to see Grandma and Grandpa
- Have a tea party with crazy-colored milk or water
- Decorate holiday cookies
- Have breakfast for dinner
- Sing songs by the Christmas tree, and have cookies, and get into new Christmas pajamas
Daily Scriptures
I’ve also included a set of scriptures I’ve put into the boxes as well, which we’ll read every day. I got this list right here. This includes references to LDS scriptures as well, so if you are not LDS, you can replace these with Bible scriptures (Probably from Luke 2)
December 1: 1 Corinthians 1:3
December 2-1 John 4-7
December 3: Romans 15:4
Dec. 4-Psalms 119:105-106
December 5-Isaiah 40:3-5
December 6 Isaiah 41:10
December 7-Psalm 98:4-9
December 8-Isaiah 2:2-3
December 9-Psalm 95:6-8
December10-D&C45:71
December11-Romans 13:11-12
December12-Mark 13:33-37
December 13-Micah 5:2
December14-Isaiah 9;6
December 15-Mosiah 3:5-8
December 16-Alma5:50
December17-Alma 7:9-10
December 18-Alma9:26-27
December 19-Helaman 14:3-8
December 20-Luke 1:26-29
December 21-Luke 1:30-38
December 22-Matt1:18-21
December 23-John 3:16-17
Dec.24- 3 Nephi 1:13-14 or: 3 Nephi 1:10-21, Luke chapter 2
I’d love to hear ideas you have for celebrating the Christmas month. Are you doing special activities every day? Reading together? Scriptures? It’s not too late to start if you haven’t. It’s only December 1 after all. :)