This past year, we’ve been doing activity calendar countdowns to holidays…Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and, now, Christmas. Although we have several traditional Advent calendars, with boxes or pockets for small toys or candy, we’re trying the activity one this year. Yes, I’ll probably have to do one of the others, as well, but this is a start!
To make it, I simply resized and printed out the Days of December page template from Stampin’ Up, then resized and printed Ali Edwards Advent Boxes from DesignerDigitals.com. See, that’s why I wanted you to download that Days of December when it was free for Digital Scrapbooking Day! If you did not, here’s a great alternative from Makoodle.
Anyhoo, I printed, cut, and then wrote out our list. If you would rather, you can even type the list right on the cards before you print them. I thought it was a nice touch to have my own handwriting on them, though. After I wrote the activities, I figured out what would work on which day of the countdown and glued the backs together. To make it a bit more finished, I rounded the corners of each card.
Then all that was left was to spice up the $4 frame I found at Walmart. This craft allowed me to use both a staple gun to attach the bakers’ twine and a hot glue gun for the burlap background. All that was left to do then was hanging each card with cute little decorated clothespins. Oh, and I looped a wide striped ribbon around the frame to hand the whole shebang.
Voila! The hooligans will have such a great time with this!
Here’s our list, compiled from extensive research (I Googled “activity Advent calendars”):
1. Read the Elf on the Shelf book in preparation for his arrival
2. Clean out and organize toys and donate
3. Buy a toy and donate it to Toys for Tots
4. Make thumbprint tree ornaments from salt dough
5. Write letters to Santa
6.Celebrate St. Nicholas Day
7. Have a family game night
8. Make pinecone birdseed ornaments for outside tree
9. Make paper snowflakes and hang them EVERYWHERE!
10. Watch a Christmas movie
11. Do something kind and helpful for a family member
12. Focus on being kind and polite to everyone you meet
13. Read some Christmas books
14. Draw a Christmas picture
15. Make snow ice cream (hopefully!), or ice cream sundaes
16.Make cinnamon ornaments to tie on granola for neighbors
17. Decorate a gingerbread house
18. Bake and decorate cookies
19. Write Christmas notes to your teachers
20. Make ice candles
21. Drive around to look at lights and drink hot chocolate
22. Decorate birthday cupcakes for Jesus
23. Make a Christmas craft
24. Make popcorn and watch “The Polar Express” movie
Of course, your family’s list will be different…we’re certainly not the poster family for Advent activities! We’re going to be travelling some days, so I had to figure out what activities would work in other places than our home.
Now I have to go hide this until December 1, or the hooligans will be begging to start!
Thank you! I am going to do this with my girls. I LOVE advent calendars 🙂
See, there’s something I didn’t know about you. I could probably be persuaded to print the numbers and cards out for you, if you’re making it the same way.
Great use of digital and real products! Love it.
Thanks, Dee…I have to justify keeping all those crafting supplies somehow! Thanks for stopping by, too!
What a great idea! Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the store to get a frame in the next week or so!
Thanks, Liz…I had no idea they had the empty frames at Walmart…there’s a section (in ours, anyway) to build poster frames, with all the components. The frames were there. Thanks for the comment, and for stopping by…hope you’ll visit often!
I love advent calendars. This one is adorable! Glad you linked up at “I Gotta Try That” Have a great Thanksgiving!
Marcie
Thanks, Marcie…for the sweet comment and for stopping by! You have a Happy Thanksgiving, too!
Fun! The great thing about this Advent Calendar is that you can customize the activities to ensure they’re appropriate for your child’s age, your families location and include some traditions from your family. Super smart. Hopefully I’ll have time to make one.
Thanks for sharing during the Whip it Up Wednesday handmade linky party. I look forward to seeing more of your great projects! Happy Holidays!