So Advent has snuck up on me, y’all. Which is kind of hilarious and kind of ridiculous, given my line of work. At work, I’ve been seeing Advent coming for awhile, but at home, I’ve been focused on Thanksgiving preparations (it was such a good holiday this year! I hope yours was, too!) and somehow overlooked the fact that I needed to get our Advent calendar up. Like, tonight.
I started a tradition when my kids were in kindergarten, of an Advent Activity Calendar – each day of the calendar held a slip of paper with a family activity for that day. It was a sweet idea, and the kids loved it. But let me tell you, the expectations have ramped up each year – the boys expect new activities. They like to be surprised. In other words, I can’t keep rehashing the same old ideas. But I am tired, y’all, and I don’t have any new ideas. I barely even have the energy to do the old ideas. Also, older elementary school kids have a lot more going on than kindergarteners do, and it’s a lot harder to fit special family activities in. But Tiny Dancer got out of bed tonight to ask me why the Advent calendar wasn’t up yet, and I realized that yeah, I need to get to work.
All of this reminds me to make sure you know that I have documented (somewhat) my previous attempts at this activity, so if you are tired and out of ideas, you can see what I’ve done in the past. And hey, if you have any great ideas of things I haven’t done, shoot them to me, okay? Because I have to fill 24 little mittens with ideas, and right now I have approximately two.
Smitten Advent Garland
earthchicknits 
I was wondering if you still did this activity calender, since I got the idea from you to do the same with our family. My kids LOVE it! My oldest, 12, has been so excited for this to start. She’s an organizer, so she’s pulled together lots of ideas, although sorting them into available time slots in the calendar is another thing. Her ideas:
Make some ornaments for the tree
Pick out the tree
Go back and cut down the tree
Put up and decorate the tree
Have picnic under the tree
Sleep overnight under the tree
Prepare gifts for teachers, neighbors, etc.
Make cookies
Go to craft fair
Go to toy store/church/other to get tag off charity gift tree
Attend Christmas parade
Attend Christmas play or concert
Make gingerbread house
Write letters to Santa
Prepare package of gifts and holiday goodies to mail to family member(s)
Prepare bird treats (peanut butter balls with seeds, or suet or whatever) to hang outside
Make fudge
Decorate mantel piece with Christmas decorations
Hang Advent calender
Put on PJs and drink hot chocolate with peppermint stick in it
Wear PJs to drive to see Christmas lights
Make paper snowflakes
Hang in the entrance hallway strands of crocheted snowflakes, paper cut snowflakes and quilled snowflakes (accumulated over the years)
Make Christmas crafts (we’re making origami boxes this year)
Make dough ornaments
Paint porcelain ornaments (purchased from craft store)
Pull out Christmas books and do first reading(s) in PJs by the fireplace in the living room
Make gingerbread
You’ve given me several ideas over the years. I look forward to seeing your activities, too!
I love the mittens idea! I just hope that you can find enough ideas to fill them….
Learn a verse of a favorite Christmas carol in Spanish
I’m still doing mine every year after seeing yours years ago. The kids always remind me on November 30 since I’m always running late with it. Some different ones I have added over the years are Eat out breakfast on way to school, make pizza from scratch, listen to Christmas music while reading in front of fireplace, camp out in front of tree all night, and backwards day (breakfast at dinner, dinner food for breakfast). Each year I want to knit the mittens, but I don’t remember until Thanksgiving!