Countdown to Christmas: Advent Box

Tomorrow we begin one of our favorite holiday traditions: the Advent Box. Our box came from Restoration Hardware ages ago, but nowadays you can find Advent boxes at Target, Walmart, and lots of other places. You could even make one of your own by stringing up baby socks like this:

Or ordering one like this on Etsy that you just print out and assemble:

Every year, the kids take turns opening one of the little wooden doors in our box. Inside are four candies (usually Hershey’s kisses or Reese’s mini peanut butter cups) and a little slip of paper with the day’s activity. The activities have changed over the years—when the kids were very small there was a lot of glueing of paper candy canes and that sort of thing. Now I can let them loose with more sophisticated projects like planning St. Lucia’s Day (Lexie’s specialty, which I can’t wait to share with you next week).

We also open a Christmas picture book every day to read during Advent. The books aren’t new, but it’s fun to unwrap them and everyone has his or her favorite.

Here are some of the things I’m planning to do this year or that we’ve done in the past. Since this is my first year blogging I don’t have links to anything yet, but I’ll add them as the month progresses. If you have any ideas, please share them because I’m always looking for new things to do.

Advent Box Activity Ideas:

• Cut out paper snowflakes (we usually do this early on to decorate the dining room windows)
• Make a gingerbread house
• Decorate the tree
• Host a cookie exchange party
• Make cookies (we usually have more than one day of this)
• Make crafts
• School Christmas or band concerts
• Visit Santa
• Make Sibling Gifts
• Make peanut butter ornaments for the birds
• Make Dad’s Christmas biscotti
• Decorate the girls’ Christmas tree
• Go sledding
• Go ice-skating
• Make food for the reindeer
• Make a Swedish Kringla
• Celebrate St. Lucia’s Day
• Watch Elf with popcorn and hot chocolate
• Pappaw’s Christmas visit
• Assemble Christmas cards
• Assemble and mail Christmas packages
• Make gift tags
• Visit the Nativity
• Grammy’s Christmas Concert
• Make Ice Cream trees
• Build a Snowman
• Make Nutter Butter Santas
• Practice Christmas Play
• Host a Christmas sing-along
• Go shopping for the Christmas Family
• Drive around and look at Christmas lights
• Visit the Christmas display at Macy’s
• Play Christmas songs on the piano at the nursing home
• Go to the Holidazzle Parade
• Make treats for the dogs
• Wrap presents
• Make winter ice candles
• Bring treats to an animal shelter
• Go to a Christmas movie
• Host a gingerbread house-making party
• It’s Christmas Eve!
• Merry Christmas!

Some days all I can manage is a joke: “What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?” Frostbite. Or “What do Santa’s elves learn in the North Pole school?” The elfabet.