12 Days of Christmas Ideas 2014 – Day 1
Welcome to As You Wish Events’ 12 Days of Christmas Ideas for 2014. It was this time last year when we launched this blog with 12 Days of Christmas Ideas, so I guess you can say it is our Blog’s 1st Birthday. Last year we began with our 5 favourite Advent Calendars, and because I love the countdown to Christmas and how it builds anticipation for the actual day, I thought we’d begin this year’s ideas with how to create an activity based Advent calendar.
Last Christmas, with my son being old enough to appreciate Christmas more fully, we decided that we wanted to do all we could to create great Christmas memories. So I set out to fill our advent calendar with experiences that would do just that. And thus this guide was born. Many of our examples reflect the values we hold as a family, but I’m sure that this guide can inspire you to come up with activities of your own, that will work for you and yours.
Fun on the Bouncy Castle at Playgroup
Christmas Social Group Functions – A great place to start is by adding all the Christmas functions from social groups you belong to. So for us the first things that went on the advent calendar last year were the Christmas party at playgroup, the Children’s Christmas Production and family fun day at church.
Community Events – Next look around your community to see what Christmas events are happening for the public, and select a few that you would like to go to and add them. If cost is an issue for you, don’t fret. Many community events are gold coin donation or free to attend. We ended up choosing a ‘Live Nativity Drive Through’ put on by a local church and going to see Christmas light displays around our area. Light Up Christmas is a great website for finding the best light displays in your area and it even helps you to plan the best route to take. And of course we included a trip to see Santa at Smith & Caughey’s Enchanted forest.
The Enchanted Forest at Smith & Caughey, Queen St
Gatherings with Family and Friends – Don’t be afraid, to be the first to suggest that you should get some dates down on paper. Pre-planning does help relieve the stress of the season. Last year we began the tradition of building Gingerbread houses with the cousins, so that became one of our advent activities. I also thought that a picnic at a playground would be something my son would really enjoy, so we invited a couple of friends and took with us some juice in Christmas decorated bottles and fairy-bread (which we called Angel-bread because we made it with an angel cookie cutter and Christmas coloured sprinkles). Simple, but great fun.
Things you have to do anyway, but with a Christmas twist – There are always things that can’t be avoided so why not work them into the calendar. We had to travel to be with family so we decide to build that into our Christmas advent activities. The Christmas twist we added was that we would stop at a beach along the way for a run around and Ice cream, to which we added some Christmas coloured sprinkles. A friend of mine recently told me about how the New World Supermarket in Ponsonby, Auckland, do Christmas in a big way. They add special displays among other things – so maybe grocery shopping could even be a fun advent activity.
Christmas decorating – This is one of my favourites, partly because I love to decorate but also because you can break it down into stages and make it last more than one day. We started with putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it together as a family. Another day we set up our Nativity Scene and on a couple of other days we put up other specific decorations.
Christmas baking & crafts – I like to make Christmas cookies so we designated a day or two for my son and I to do baking. I measure out the ingredients and we count them out together as he tips them into the bowl. He also helps with the mixing. Of course the part that was most fun for him was licking the bowl and eating them after. We also made Christmas decorations together like paper chains and lanterns which we added to the tree and around the house.
My son with the cookies – a dangerous combination
At home activities for the kids – By this stage the Advent calendar should be getting pretty full. To fill in some of the final spaces we did things like Christmas colouring-in pages, watching Christmas DVDs, and reading Christmas stories.
At home activities for the family – For the last of the spaces consider adding some family activities. For our family activities we made a short Christmas video greeting; had a family movie night complete with popcorn and a Christmas movie of course; and celebrated Christmas’ gone past by looking at Christmas photos from years gone by.
So there you have it, an activity based advent calendar that will create beautiful Christmas memories for you and your family. Now if you do get to the end of this guide and you still have gaps to fill, there is nothing wrong with adding in a few chocolates. Or you can join us on our Facebook page and we might be able to help you come up with a few more ideas.
When it comes to reducing stress around a busy event filled time of year, pre-planning is the number one key. Another key is to write everything down – that way you are reducing the strain on your brain that comes from trying to remember all the things you are supposed to do. This year I thought I should take my own advice and write all my Christmas planning down, and to do this I found this beautiful Christmas diary from Close to My Heart.
