advent activities: week two
December 13th, 2013
I loved all of your advent activity suggestions on last week’s post. Thank you! Keep em coming. We are only halfway through advent. If you say it that way it feels like it’s a long time before Christmas :)
advent activities: week two
DAY 6: watch a Christmas Carol.
Friday is our movie night, so we watched an animated version of this Christmas classic.
DAY 7: go see the Christmas trains.
Does every city have this? Our Christmas train exhibit is in our local botanical garden. My husband took the kids, so I don’t have any pictures, but I hear the Christmas village was completely made out of candy!
DAY 8: make paper snowflakes
We make our paper snowflakes out of coffee filters. They are easier for little hands (and scissors) to cut. To make a coffee filter snowflake, first flatten the coffee filter, fold it in half, then in thirds, then in half again. Cut little triangles all over, or get fancy and look up patterns on Pinterest. I iron the snowflakes after we’re done making them. It sounds fussy, but they look so much nicer. Then we fill up all our windows with snowflakes!
DAY 9: gumdrop sculptures
We did this last year and it was a bit hit. You have to brace yourself for the insane sugar high (and subsequent crash), but it is a lot of fun. There is a swing set in there somewhere and a dog and a booby trap. If you make gumdrop sculptures, be sure to look for short toothpicks. We had longer ones for some reason, and the sculptures were not very sturdy.
DAY 10: listen to Christmas records
Nothing better than listening to Bing Crosby sing I’ll be Home for Christmas.
DAY 11: make ice wreaths
The upside to living with sub-zero temperatures: ice wreaths. If you too live in painfully cold conditions, you can make this beautiful holiday decoration. Bundt pans work the best, but you can use any round cake pan. To make the hole in the middle weight an empty tin can down with rocks (or water). Don’t use glass! Ask me how I know.
DAY 12: dress up and go to the Christmas concert
We had two kids in the Christmas concert this year and my son even had a solo! All of us got our best clothes on and trudged through the cold and snow to hear adorable little kids sing adorable little songs.
Whew! That was our week in advent activities! Have you done anything Christmasy lately?
oh, what lovely ideas, looks like you’ve all been having a great time
http://ahandfulofhope.blogspot.co.uk/
Can I just tell you how much I appreciate your blog? I am always inspired, always entertained, and (almost) never intimidated. We are all set to make your panforte for the third year in a row. Thanks for keeping things Christmas-y and chilled out.
Hi Meg
Still no marshmallows but have all the supplies….lol
I wanted to know are you making any handmade Christmas gifts? If so, what are you planning….
Thanks
: )
Terri, I usually don’t do much sewing for Christmas. I made a gift for my best friend and I’m making some pajama holders for my kids. Other than that, it’s caramels and marshmallows all the way. :)
I just made 2 batches of marshmallows and it’s dead easy. Go now! Make marshmallows!
Aw these are great! I think next year will be the real start of “advent activities” for us – I feel like my daughter is old enough but my son wouldn’t really care about it now, so it’d be more stress than anything. I did take her to the Nutcracker, though! always a fun time with the mini ballerina who leans over and whispers “I could do that!” while watching the professionals dance. :D
We haven’t been to the nutcracker yet. I want to go badly, but sheesh the ballet is expensive!