This year I wanted to be sure that our family had plenty of time for fun amid all of the holiday hustle and bustle. I knew that if we were going to spend a little time together every day as a family, it was going to require some planning and preparation. I came up with the idea of doing an advent calendar of sorts by using moments of family fun for our countdown rather than trinkets or treats. Holiday countdown activities!
Tools Needed:
Printer and ink
Scissors
Transparent tape
Curling Ribbon
Using the Assemble Your Own: Holiday Countdown Activities product found in the Scrap Girls Shop, I quickly chose the 24 activities I knew would be most enjoyable for our family (there are more than 50 activities to choose from!) and I assembled three printable sheets of activities. Next, I simply printed the sheets and used scissors to quickly cut out each activity card.
Then I cut pieces of wrapping paper just slightly larger than the activity cards themselves.
I rolled the wrapping paper and activity card like a tube, sealed it with a small piece of transparent tape and then simply tucked the ends of wrapping paper into the ends of the rolled tubes.
Next I cut regular curling ribbon to 12 inch segments and strung the ribbon through the wrapped tube. Then I attached the wrapped tube “gifts” to an artificial pine garland using the curling ribbon and tying a bow. I spaced the 24 wrapped tubes several inches apart and then wrapped the garland around a stair handrail where we will see it frequently and be reminded to do a daily activity as a family.
If you don’t want to deal with the pine garland you could just string all the wrapped activities on one long piece of curling ribbon to make a simpler garland. Or you could just toss the wrapped activities into a decorative bowl or jar! It really can be as simple as you want! The real point is to build in a little family together time every day!
We’ll begin our holiday countdown activities by opening one wrapped activity on November 30th before bed and participating in the activity the following day. A few of the activities require some minor preparation, so by opening the activity the night before we do it, I’ll have time to prepare anything necessary for the activity to go smoothly the following day. We’ll do one activity every day leading up to Christmas on December 25th. Alternately, you could use the Assemble Your Own: Holiday Countdown Activities to plan a Twelve Days of Christmas event and just choose twelve activities to do. Many of the activities included in the Assemble Your Own: Holiday Countdown Activities are winter-themed and service-oriented and would work for other wintertime holidays just as easily as Christmas.
I’m really looking forward to making this an annual tradition. I know my kids will get a kick out the fun little things we’ll be doing together and I’m excited to have a little extra reason to connect as a family every day during the busy holiday season.
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