Alternative Advent activities
December is a month like no other. There are ornaments to dig into the basement and distribute throughout the house. There is a 5 page list of friends and loved ones to buy gifts for. There are numerous activities, special events and parties to attend. A couple of years ago, I pulled out the Advent calendar wall hanging that I had been using since my oldest son was a baby. Years before, he’d filled every little pocket with some kind of sugary Christmas treat. That year, I wanted to find something to stuff in those little pockets that wouldn’t aggravate the cavities that were probably progressing in my children’s baby teeth.
After spending several hours planning our family’s calendar of events, printing coloring pages and Christmas craft ideas, and researching local holiday events, I came up with the perfect solution. I combined the beauty of an Advent calendar with the desire to fill our vacations with all the wonderful aspects of tradition and family. I printed out a page of the December calendar and started filling in all the dates with the things I knew we had to do (party at the neighbor’s house, church on Christmas Eve). Next, I filled in all the dates with the things I knew were a holiday must-have (buying / decorating a tree, baking cookies, driving to see the lights). Finally, I thought of all the things that help brighten the holidays (the Nutcracker, crafts, Christmas movies, and books).
Before I knew it, my entire December was planned and I no longer had to worry about letting the season go by. All that was left for me to do was fill the Advent calendar with folded sheets of paper. If you have young children, I recommend that you leave forms blank and complete them each night before bed. I’ve always had to reorganize activities a bit to allow for spontaneity. When we go down for breakfast in the morning, the first thing they say is, “What’s on our calendar today?” Will it be an activity, a baking project, a Christmas craft, a gift to friends and neighbors, or a day to learn about the Christmas rituals and beliefs of others? One thing’s for sure, it’s probably something we would have pulled out of the holiday season anyway, but it just gets more fun with the countdown.