Advent Calendar

The morning after we decorated our Christmas tree I woke up at 5am to my 3-year old yelling to his brother to get up because Santa had been to our house. My 4-year old didn't get up, so my 3-year old came to our bed to tell us Santa had left Christmas presents for us to open. I explained that it wasn't Christmas, so Santa hadn't visited our house. This made me realize that we really needed to teach the boys a sense of time.

I've used a calendar before to cross off days of the week for a countdown to something, but advent calendars take it to another level with treats or little presents. It's a great visual representation too. This year we created an advent calendar with brown paper bags.

I drew Christmas, holiday, religious, and random things on the baggies with a Sharpie. Then the boys colored everything in like in their coloring books. My husband and I helped color a little. I couldn't resist coloring the leg lamp, and my husband enjoyed coloring my version of a Cardinal into a chicken pooping. It was fun for all of us.

After the boys went to bed we stuffed the baggies and taped them up. Every year we have traditions that we scramble to do because we didn't plan ahead, so this year we organized everything into the advent calendar. For example, we will go to the zoo to see Santa on the 10th, so I wrote that on a slip of paper and put it in the number 10 baggie. I did easy ones for during the week because we don't have a lot of time. Some of our activities are as follows:

Coloring contest (my husband is the judge)
Treats

Write letters to Santa

Popcorn garland making

Cookie making

Going to the movies

Ornament making

Hot chocolate night (with all the fixings)

Popcorn ball making and eating

Holiday movie camp out in the living room

Holiday book reading marathon

Holiday light show

Preschool Christmas Program

Birthday party (our baby girl turns 1)

Open 1 gift

St. Nick's day

A letter from Santa on Christmas morning

We will open a baggie each morning at breakfast, and then we will talk about when we will do our activity or event. I also wrote all the activities on a calendar we see everyday, so we can be a step ahead. Thank goodness the boys can't read yet.

It seemed like a lot of work and time, but my husband rationalized it by saying that it's not much time when it's divided out through 25 days. We also scheduled 2 birthday parties, Christmas programs, traveling for Christmas, and Santa visits. I feel better just knowing it's all written down.