I started planning fun, festive activities for December in October and November. Now that Christmas day is right around the corner, I wanted to show a little recap of what Christmas traditions & advent activities have looked like for our family.

Christmas Traditions:

The first Christmas tradition is of course — the tree! We started off the month by picking out our tree, waiting a few days for the branches “to fall” and then we decorated! Javi LOVED decorating the tree and we only had one ornament casualty. 🙂

Another Christmas tradition we continued was attending the town tree lighting ceremony at the beginning of the month. It was chilly and Javi got to see Santa and Frosty. And so began his obsession with “frosty… the… NO… man”.

On the first of December, we started the Christmas tradition of the 12 days of books. Javi opened one Christmas-themed book a day. He was really into this.

Opening a present a day, kind of went to his head 🙂 and he soon thought he could open any present at any time! When we told him that’s not how it works… he started laying in front of the tree — just admiring the gifts. 🙂

I love watching him create things and one Christmas tradition we’re sure to keep up is arts & crafts. There’s so much to do and so many ideas on Pinterest. We’ve done a few Christmas-themed crafts and we still have more in the works.

Building a gingerbread house was definitely hard with a toddler but so worth it. He loved the icing and would stick his finger in the icing and then say “oh no!” with a smile as he licked the icing off his finger. Over and over again. It’s definitely a Christmas tradition we’ll continue.

When I saw the 12 days of socks at Target I knew I wanted to include it in our December festivities. AND then I found the Star Wars version and it was a done deal. He’s been looking forward to his new pair of socks every day.

Most recently:

This evening, we visited Fatima Shrine. We’re not religious but we enjoy walking around and looking at the lights. It’s peaceful (and cold) and a nice night out. Sean and I made Fatima Shrine a Christmas tradition well before Javi joined us and we’re so glad we can now share in this tradition. Javi loved the lights but refused to walk (toddlers!).

We still have a few more days of our advent activities — baking cookies, a few more crafts, and HOPEFULLY a photo with Santa (toddlers!). But now I want to share one more thing I have in the works for Javi —

Toddler Christmas Eve Box:

We’re just a few nights away from Christmas Eve and I am SO excited. We’re continuing Javi’s “Christmas Eve box” and during his nap today I put it together. The concept of a Christmas Eve box is something I saw on Pinterest last year and I knew I wanted to include one in our festive traditions. This year I included a cozy blanket, Mickey pajamas + socks (similar), a book we’ll read together and a cute little snow globe (similar).

How is your December going?