{"id":608,"date":"2014-11-17T03:29:16","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T03:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/?p=608"},"modified":"2016-01-13T13:10:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T00:10:08","slug":"creating-christmas-memories-a-guide-to-an-activity-based-advent-calendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/creating-christmas-memories-a-guide-to-an-activity-based-advent-calendar\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Christmas Memories – a guide to an activity based Advent calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"

12 Days of Christmas Ideas 2014 – Day 1<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Welcome to As You Wish Events’ 12 Days of Christmas Ideas for 2014.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Last year we began with our 5 favourite Advent Calendars<\/a>, 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\u00a0with how to create an activity based Advent calendar.<\/p>\n

Last Christmas, with\u00a0my son being\u00a0old enough to appreciate\u00a0Christmas more fully,\u00a0we decided that we wanted to do all we could to create great Christmas memories.\u00a0 So I set out to fill our advent calendar with experiences that would do just that.\u00a0 And thus this guide was born.\u00a0 Many of our examples\u00a0reflect the values we hold as a family, but\u00a0I’m sure that\u00a0this guide can inspire you to come up with activities of your own,\u00a0that will work for you and yours.<\/p>\n

\"Playgroup\"

Fun on the Bouncy Castle at Playgroup<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas Social Group Functions<\/strong> – A great place to start is by adding all the Christmas\u00a0functions from social groups you belong to.\u00a0 So for us the first things that went\u00a0on the advent calendar last year were the Christmas party at playgroup,\u00a0the Children’s Christmas Production and family fun day at church.<\/p>\n

Community Events<\/strong> – Next\u00a0look around your community\u00a0to see what Christmas events\u00a0are happening for the public, and select a few that you would like to go to and add them.\u00a0\u00a0If\u00a0cost is an issue for you, don’t fret.\u00a0 Many community events are gold coin donation or free to attend.\u00a0 We ended up choosing a ‘Live Nativity Drive\u00a0Through’\u00a0put on by a local church and\u00a0going\u00a0to see Christmas light displays around our area. Light Up Christmas<\/a> is a\u00a0great website for finding the best light displays in your area and it even helps\u00a0you to plan the best route to take.\u00a0 And of course we included a trip to\u00a0see Santa at Smith\u00a0& Caughey’s\u00a0<\/a>Enchanted forest.<\/p>\n

\"Sign

The Enchanted Forest at Smith & Caughey, Queen St<\/p><\/div>\n

Gatherings with Family and Friends\u00a0<\/strong>–\u00a0Don’t be afraid, to be\u00a0the first to suggest that you should get some dates down on paper.\u00a0 Pre-planning does help relieve the stress of the season<\/a>.\u00a0 Last year we began the tradition of building Gingerbread houses with the cousins, so that became one of our\u00a0advent activities.\u00a0 I also thought that a picnic at a playground would be something my son would really enjoy, so we invited a\u00a0couple of\u00a0friends and took with us some juice in Christmas decorated bottles and\u00a0fairy-bread (which we called Angel-bread because we made it with an angel cookie cutter\u00a0and Christmas coloured sprinkles).\u00a0 Simple, but great fun.<\/p>\n

Things you have to do anyway, but with a Christmas twist<\/strong> – There are always things that can’t be avoided so why not work them into the calendar.\u00a0 We had to travel to be with family so we decide to build that into our Christmas advent activities.\u00a0 The Christmas twist we added was that we would stop at a beach along the way for a run around and\u00a0Ice cream, to which we added some Christmas coloured sprinkles.\u00a0 A friend of mine recently told me about how the New World Supermarket in Ponsonby, Auckland,\u00a0do Christmas\u00a0in a big way.\u00a0 They add special\u00a0displays among other things – so maybe grocery shopping could even be a fun advent activity.<\/p>\n

Christmas decorating<\/strong> – This\u00a0is one of my favourites, partly because I love to decorate but also\u00a0because 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.<\/p>\n

Christmas baking & crafts<\/strong> – I like to make Christmas cookies so we designated a day or two for\u00a0my son and I to do baking.\u00a0 I measure out the ingredients and we count them out together as he tips\u00a0them into the bowl.\u00a0 He also helps with the mixing.\u00a0 Of course the\u00a0part that was most fun for him was licking the bowl and eating them after.\u00a0 We also made Christmas decorations together like paper chains and lanterns which we added to the tree and around the house.<\/p>\n

\"Baking

My son with the cookies – a dangerous combination<\/p><\/div>\n

At home activities for the kids<\/strong> – By this stage the Advent calendar should be getting pretty full.\u00a0\u00a0To fill in some of\u00a0the final spaces we did things like Christmas colouring-in pages, watching Christmas DVDs, and reading Christmas stories.<\/p>\n

At home activities for the family<\/strong> – For the last of the spaces consider\u00a0adding some family activities.\u00a0 For our family activities\u00a0we 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So\u00a0there you have it, an activity based advent calendar that will\u00a0create\u00a0beautiful Christmas memories for you and your family.\u00a0\u00a0Now 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 <\/span><\/span><\/a>and we might be able to help you come up with a few more ideas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Days of Christmas Ideas 2014 – Day 1 Welcome to As You Wish Events’ 12 Days of Christmas Ideas for 2014.\u00a0 It was this time last year when we launched this blog with 12 Days of Christmas Ideas, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-planning-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1464,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}