Are you killin’ it this Christmas?! Don’t wanna brag but let me totally brag for a hot second. We are knocking this holiday season outta the park….got our decorating done early….um….early for us….which means right on time….which means that we get to enjoy it for at least four whole weeks this year. Call the New York Times. Seriously. Most of our gift giving is done and stock piled. The boys aren’t allowed to go in any closets or else. I have baked all our neighbors gifts and even helped Will buy his gifts and wrap them. And I even have matching Christmas Eve outfits for the boys. HOLD. THE. EGGNOG.
I say all that because I feel like I am really getting to enjoy this holiday season and here is a little project that has really helped. If you have been in my house in the last week, you will know about this project already because I promptly shuffled you to this back door area and made you ogle my latest creation for at least seventeen minutes. My apologies to the delivery man and our mail lady. It’s our 12 days of Christmas Board!
In the past, I have always done an advent themed board (here’s the original Pottery Barn knock-off advent board that I love) and when I did the boys loved it….but it was hard. For me, it was difficult to get everything ready right after Thanksgiving finished. And 25 days is much longer than 12. And put Jeremy’s birthday in the smack dab middle for even more stress. But 12 days? Starting the day after Jer’s big day? Much more manageable. The idea here is to plan activities that get us ready for the Christmas event. It’s holiday foreplay if you will.
I made the board ages ago and the stockings were scores from Target last year. I think I paid thirty cents each (90% off after Christmas!). I just put each one up with a straight pin and added a little number tag made with one of these craft punches (if you don’t have this
We definitely want to read the Christmas story. We’ve been reading the boys children’s bible but we want to read the actual scripture to them….even if it’s not as exciting and there are no pictures. I know the boys are still little but one day hopefully we can do something with more memorization (this is my inspiration!). The Christmas movie is self-explanatory. We just went with one that would be age appropriate for the babies too.
Every year we do a gingerbread house (here’s last years house) and this year we are only going to do one at the grandparent’s house. Whew! I have promised to bring the pound of leftover Halloween candy and some extra icing. And Christmas wouldn’t be complete without seeing lights. This year, we are going to Rock City to see the lights. We have been there when Will was little…but I barely remember it.
The giving night is an activity that Will suggested. We had one more spot left on the list and he suggested that we “give all the world something…like a present”….and my whole being just melted in the living room. Seriously. Our couch cushion still has my heart. We decided that this year we would let Will get involved in the giving process. We are printing out the World Vision and the Save the Children gift catalogs and letting Will decide where we should give. I know that this means explaining to him that he won’t be getting as many presents (aka he’s gonna be upset) but I feel like it’s a good life lesson. And the christmas picture…well, I think you know what that means.
Christmas fun night is gonna be at Stone Mountain. They have a full day of Christmas fun and we are really excited about the caroling train and the Christmas parade. We already baked the Christmas cookies (obviously we are a few days into the 12 days by now) and the boys were really great at dipping the sugar cookies in christmas sprinkles and sticking the peppermint kisses in the center.
Every year we go see Santa and do a free carriage ride. One day I want to print out all the Santa photos and hang them up together for Christmas. That will be a epic day. And speaking of Kris Kringle, I got this ornament kit for three felt Santas at Michaels. It was 50% off so each ornament will only be fifty cents.
The last two are pretty simple. We are drinking hot cocoa. And we wrote a letter to Santa. I made the letters in Photoshop and I must say that I will cherish them always. Especially the part where he told Santa to say hello to his favorite reindeer…..Joey.
I’ve done 12 days of a toddler Christmas before but I think this version is much better. The boys seem to like it better and the fact that everything is up high makes me happier. Nobody likes to crash things more than Weston. Mason jars are just not a good idea when Munch is involved.
So how are you celebrating the next few weeks leading up to Christmas? Are you doing the traditional activities? Are you decorated? baked? gifted? exhausted? still in a turkey coma?
I made a PB knock-off advent but ours has 25 days. We have been doing a small piece of candy or a $1 toy (Hot Wheels FTW) each day and my son loves it. I guess gifts are his love language at age 4. But I do love this idea too and those stockings are adorable!
This is the second year I’ve done advent activities with my daughter, except this year I was expecting my second daughter’s arrival right at Thanksgiving (due Nov. 30th, arrived Nov. 22nd). So, I had everything planned out by early November, including printing out instructions for any crafts we had planned. I anticipated that someone other than myself would be doing many of these activities with hr and they were all ready with supplies all in one box. It makes it much easier to complete each activity when everything is all ready for us. Of course, as life goes, I’ve had to switch a few things here and there, but planning simpler activities on busy days or while my husband was key. I wanted my 3-year old not feel like she was getting slighted this Christmas just because we have a new baby in the house. It’s also been great for her to have some individual time with me or my husband as well. Score one point for being crazy anal organized and putting my mania to good work this advent.
The 12 days of Christmas actually begin on the 25th and continue until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th.
Yes…I’m technically doing like an advent type thing here but only 12 days instead of 25…does that make sense?
xo – kb
isn’t it funny how their little love languages come out at such an early age?! I was just talking about that with a friend!
xo – kb
More than one point! Like 25!
xo – kb
So cute and I am totally with you on the 12 days being much more manageable than 25 in the midst of busy life. I love the mixture of some really meaningful things and some just fun lighthearted things like drinking cocoa. Thanks for sharing!
im going to have to do something similar to this for next year! Trying to find activities for both boys to enjoy and being organized while dealing with an almost 9 month old was a bit stressful this year and I pretty much gave up. We still do the activities, but not in any order. 12 seems more manageable. Maybe I’ll get my butt in gear and get some stuff on clearance this year! Well done!
I love your Christmas activities!
I made an advent calendar this year. Most of the pockets for each day have either chocolates or ornaments in them, and on weekends I am also including ‘activities’. The activities are pretty simple, like set up Christmas tree, look at lights, make cookies, etc. It’s fun, and I’m glad we’re doing it. The kids can reach the advent calendar, though, and I realized just in time that I can’t put anything in the pockets until the night before. Else they will just ransack the whole thing!
Here’s a pic of our advent calendar (made out of linen, felt, and quilting cottons):
http://instagram.com/p/wM1FHBLzjF/
HAHA! You have little elves 🙂 It’s so cute!
xo – kb
I have 24 Christmas books wrapped under the tree. Every night after bath time my daughter picks one to unwrap and we read a different book. Some a religious, some are silly…but all are fun. My daughter is only 18 months old…but I hope this is something we’ll do for always.
Have to agree with Emily. Aren’t your kids going to be confused what “the 12 days of Christmas” means? Can’t you celebrate with these activities for the 12 days after Christmas?
How’d you make your board Katie? I love it! Love the idea too!
I LOVE this idea! Thanks!
Great idea! We didn’t bring “elf” out this year until the 16th. It was just too much coming up with ideas. We have an anniversary and my son’s birthday jammed within the 10 days before Christmas (not to mention out of town family, personal parties, school parties, etc.). I think I am going to take the view that our elf will come “shenever he feels like it” not the 1st of December. 🙂
We wish! Some of the activities are really date specific (Santa is only at the location on Thursday the 18th between 4-8pm, we are only going to see grandparents to go to Rock City on a specific date, etc.) and since we feel that Christmas is more of a celebration of an event vs. a specific day, we don’t think that it’s going to confuse them for our beliefs. When they are old enough to understand what the epiphany is and what Ash Wednesday is and all the other technical dates that are included in Christian calendars, we want them to learn but until then…we just want them to celebrate Jesus’ birthday…whether that is on December 25th or whenever we as a family do that. Of course, some folks (my grandmother included) would disagree with us and tell us that we should do it on the right days but we are doing what we can and trying to keep the focus on family and Jesus this special season vs toys and all the ‘getting’ that can creep in.
Hope this helps!
xo – kb
LOVE IT!
xo – kb
Here is the post about it!
xo – kn
Your elf seriously is ridiculously smart 🙂
xo – kb
So here’s a thought…I know that the actual scripture is not as “interesting”, but my kiddos still LOVE our advent activity. I punched 25 3-inch circles out of card stock and put numbers 1-25 on them . I punched a hole at the top of each of them and attached them all on a long ribbon. I attached another circle on the backside of the numbered circles with a brad at the bottom. Each one of the back circles has part of Luke 2 on it. Every night we flip down another circle and read the story from the beginning, adding that new one every night. Our kiddos LOVE it and look forward to flipping down a new circle every night after dinner. Because of the repetition, they end up memorizing a bunch of it without even trying! There are no gifts or activities, but they still really seem to like it, and it keeps reminding us what the season is about.
Holiday Foreplay. Amazing.
Love 12 days and that it’s shizz to do instead of toys! Did you feel overwhelmed with it or look forward to it?
such a great idea. I may need to start small with 5-every-other-days-of-Christmas being a Christmas Mama virgin and all.
I don’t feel overwhelmed with this system…but I was doing all of this stuff before. I’m all about systems right now and this system just seems to work for us…so if it doesn’t work for you, you should just do what you feel comfortable with. After all, it takes a while to get into any groove – especially Christmas-mama-hood 🙂
xo – kb
What a fabulous idea! Maybe that would be a great addition to this! Right now we are just counting the numbers but if I added the scripture, then they might be memorizing it too. Very smart!
xo – kb
This is so cute. I love the stockings and all the gifts!
I love this idea. More than just gifts.
My family has celebrated the 12 days of Christmas before Christmas since before I was even born. The grandparents buy 12 small presents for the grandkids to open each day leading up to Christmas day. I think its fine to celebrate the holiday however you want to. Its about celebrating the season and making memories with your kids!
This board is super cute! I don’t get crafty that often. (I did spring to make a felt tree for the kiddos this year.)
My gifts are bought and mostly wrapped. We have done a little baking. I am still feeling crazy stressed about all the gatherings though.
We don’t have a super fun board, but we did purchase the Hide and Hug Olaf. (My girls are OBSESSED with Frozen.) He hides every day and every few days he brings a special Christmas treat. A new book or movie, jingle bells, gingerbread house kit, etc that we’ve been picking up over the last couple of months. My original plan was to have Olaf have a suggestion for a fun activity every day, but then I couldn’t think of enough so that went by the wayside.
I love that you’re making so many fun memories with your kids and I especially love the giving day idea! You’re raising excellent kiddos that they want to give to others!! Keep it up momma!