The Advent Season.

The first thing we do each Advent season is that I put together an Advent book countdown. I used to wrap each book individually but since I strongly dislike wrapping gifts, and it was pointed out that it’s pretty wasteful to do this (!), I’ve been using canvas bags to “wrap” each book for a few years now. I painted the numbers on each bag so they know which bag to open on that day. They open one book a day.

I don’t buy 24 new books each year, I re-use what we have — but I do collect all the Christmas-themed books on December 26th and put them in the basement. That way, when I bring them out beginning on December 1st the next year — they are like-new! I do end up buying 2 or 3 new books just because I love them so much. Lola was especially into opening the canvas bags each day, and Eva was the one who wanted to read every book over and over. It’s a fun tradition that I’ll keep doing! I’ve finally learned to leave a space on the shelf for the opened books to “live” for the month of December so that they don’t travel all over the house.

Here are some of our favorite Christmas Advent books.

This was the first year that Javi really wanted an Elf on the Shelf. He asked about it, nearly every other day. But I held steady, and ignored his pleas that everyone in his whole class has an elf that visits their house and he’s the only person in the world without an elf! What he doesn’t realize is that we have our own traditions — without the actual elf — but that we actually do very similar things. (I just don’t have to move the elf each night!) What I do need to do is change out the Advent calendar for the next day’s activity. See? Essentially… it’s the same — without the insta-worthy pics!

In the past, (read about last year here) we’ve had a wooden advent calendar and each night I’d put a little slip of paper in the next day’s compartment that shared what we’d do. It got a little stale — it’s been 7 years of this! — so I opted for a new method this year. I was nervous that the kids, being such creatures of habit, would be disappointed but they were actually pretty excited that a new calendar arrived. That’s when I realized that they didn’t know I was the person changing out the advent calendar each night — no credit where credit is deserved! I didn’t burst their bubble.

I opted for an advent calendar from Pottery Barn Kids and got it on super sale back in November. I grabbed these little tree trunk slice ornaments from Michaels and doodle markers from Amazon. I thought about using the Cricut to make the writing and images look beautiful (and uniform!), but couldn’t make it work — so we ended up with something that’s cute and definitely handmade (by someone with terrible handwriting!) and guess what? The kids never said anything about the writing or my inability to doodle.

We always start on December 1st and the first day is a “surprise” gift! They each get their own advent calendars. Some (Javi) are diligent about opening one box a day, and others (the girls) skip around, open more than a compartment a day, and peek into the next compartment and then try to seal it back up. This year, Javi got a magic kit advent calendar, Lola got a jewelry making advent calendar and Eva got a Bluey advent calendar. They keep them in their rooms and I find pieces all over the house and it’s a real treat. 🙂 This is actually one tradition I wish I never started!

Sometimes the “adventivity” is something super simple. On days when we don’t have a lot of time and everyone is going in different directions with extra curricular activities I do things like “enjoy a candy cane for snack” or a hot cocoa station or give a little treat like a kinderegg. One day they got a cardboard playhouse (thanks, Target!) and paintsticks to decorate it and one day they got a Christmas-themed playdough kit.

It wouldn’t be Christmas for us without Santa. So some days the adventivity is based around the big guy — writing letters/then mailing them and visiting him at the mall (this year we did a special elevator ride to the North Pole!)… the girls don’t get too close.

It’s also fun to look into free local events! One night we went to the Santa parade in town (Sean and Javi rode on one of the floats with Cub Scouts), they also had Santa there and set off fireworks. Another day, we went to a local Christmas Bell concert at a church. Another night we walked around and saw the lights at Fatima Shrine.

On nights when we have a little more time, or even unlimited time, I plan to do things like “drive around to see Christmas lights”. This year, I upped my game and bought each kid a little Christmas-themed blanket from the Dollar Spot and decorated the inside of our car with lights for the ride! Of course, in true multi-kid fashion, two kids loved it and one kid said the lights were giving them a headache. Win some, lose some!

We’ve also done “family game night”, “family movie night”, “make a Christmas craft” and “bake a Christmas treat”. We’ve made cookies, played Pass the Pigs, watched The Santa Clause, and made and painted salt dough ornaments.

There have been a few days where the outings have been more significant. We made dinner reservations at the zoo and then walked around to see their lights. Sean’s brother and his wife gifted us Disney on Ice tickets, so we made that one of the adventivities! And then two new things that we’ve never done before were riding the Polar Express Train, and reserving a hotel room in Boston for the night to walk around and see the city’s big tree!

On Christmas Eve, the advent calendar always says to open their Christmas Eve box and they made sure to wake up extra early to do that! This year it was filled with a set of pajamas for each kid (to wear tonight!), art supplies and a game to share.

Lots of people say that it’s a lot and maybe it is? But it’s also all Christmas traditions we would do anyway — so it’s sort of nice to plan it out and have an idea of what we want to do and when. It’s pretty loose, and if I want to change something last minute, I do. The kids have been loving the month of December and so have I — and I’m glad that we’ve reached Christmas Eve. I’m proud to say I never, not once, forgot to change over the Advent calendar… all month long!

This year I also let some things go that we just couldn’t fit in and I’ve decided Christmas break would be the perfect time to do some of those things: decorating a gingerbread house, and making Christmas M&M cookies being two of those things!

So for now, that’s a wrap on our Advent season. 🙂