Saturday, November 27, 2010

Countdown to Christmas...


This is one of my favorite times of the year...yummy food, special traditions, and lots of fun! I've got several things planned as we countdown to Christmas. I found this wonderful red wire Christmas tree at one of my antique stores and will use it as our advent calendar. There are 25 little envelops and each day my little lady will pick one and it will describe the special activity we will do. Here is my list (in no particular order) of some of the things we will do...

Special Days/Activities:
Christmas Tree Day 1-
Go cut our tree down and decorate it. For the first time we get to go into the forest and cut one down!
Christmas Tree Day 2-
Read "Jesus, Me and My Christmas Tree" by Crystal Bowman
Art project- handprint Christmas Tree
Candy Cane Day 1-
Read "The Legend of the Candy Cane" by Lori Walburg
Cooking- make candy cane milkshakes or candy cane ice cream
Candy Cane Day 2-
Read "J is for Jesus" by Crystal Bowman
Art project- make candy cane ornaments
Candy Cane Day 3-
Go tour the candy factory
Candy Cane Day 4-
Do the Candy Cane Science Experiment from the book: "The ADVENTure of Christmas" by Lisa Whelchel
Snow Day-
Go sledding
Art projects- snow painting & snowflake craft
Gingerbread Day-
Read "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett
Cooking- make gingerbread men cookies and make gingerbread play dough
Make Jesus' Birthday Cake
Begin Jesse Tree (Advent countdown)
Other great books- "What God wants for Christmas" by Amy Gordon, "The 12 Days of Christmas" by Helen Haidle

The Story of Christmas:
Day 1- Angel Gabriel
Read "My First Story of Christmas" by Tim Dowley
art project- angel craft
Day 2- Messenger Angels
Family Time Activity- Lesson 12 from "Wiggles, Giggles and Popcorn"
Day 3- No room in the Inn
Read "The Christmas Story" by Patricia A. Pingry
Activity- Use the nativity set to act out the story, play dress up(Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus)
Day 4- Traveling Nativity
Family Time Activity- Lesson 20 from "Wiggles, Giggles and Popcorn"
Day 5- Shepherds
Cooking-make Lamb cookies
Art project- Staff craft
Day 6- A Shepherd Knows His Sheep
Family Time Activity- Lesson 23 from "Bubbles, Balloons, and Chocolate"
Day 7- Wise Men
Read "Humphrey's First Christmas" by Carol Heyer & "A Star for Jesus" by Crystal Bowman
Game: Follow the Stars

Family Movie Nights:
Sunday, December, 5th- St. Nicholas Day
Watch- Veggietale's Saint Nicholas
Caramel Corn
Sunday, December 12th
Watch- The Polar Express
Hot Cocoa & smores by the fire

I'm hoping to spread out the activities over 25 days. Some of these we did last year and my little lady loved them! I will be blogging about them as we go, so stay tuned! Also, do you have a special tradition that you do with your family? I would love to hear about it!

1 comment:

  1. i love all of the activities you have planned! I am featuring you tomorrow :)

    ReplyDelete