If the truth be known…
I maxed myself out when I made a hand-sewn felt Jesse Tree ornament holder.
I know what you’re thinking: THAT maxed her out? Yeah. And I’m proud of it even if it looks like a 5-year-old did it.
In case you’re wondering, crafting does not come easy for me.
But Stephen heard me SAY something about making a Christmas Countdown calendar of family activities BEFORE I attempted to sew a felt ornament holder by hand. As soon as I finished this kindergarten-style wall hanging, he asked when I was going to finish the aforementioned calendar. And I was just plain to-my-limit on the sewing thing.
So… I gathered up what materials I could find: some stickers from my former scrapbooking days, and some supplies from my former engineering-corporate-mom days. (Would you believe that the last thing I scrapbooked was Stephen’s baby shower the month before he was born over TEN YEARS AGO?)
It’s a good thing I’ve saved such random stuff for years and years. Who knew I would need to improvise with things like this? (It’s also a good thing the sticky goo on stickers lasts so long, too.)
How to make an Advent Calendar in less than 30 minutes:
Something fancy
The Busy (or Lazy) Mom’s Way to Make a Christmas Countdown Calendar: This stellar craft was made from three sheets of business card holders taped side-by-side with clear packaging tape. After cutting off the bottom row of empty card holders, I tacked it up to the wall and added a title. Voila!
My truest desire this Christmas is to focus on the meaningful moments – with our Jesse Tree as a reminder to focus on Christ, and Our Family Activity Countdown Calendar as a tool to help us make memories together. It is what I truly want for our family. I’ve been collecting and saving back these activities for a long time now. Because I had collected way more than 24 activities, the boys chose the 24 things they MOST want to do. And all of our normal Christmas traditions made the list. (And, in some cases, we will be doing more than one activity in a single day.) The boys are E-X-C-I-T-E-D about it.
In hindsight, I realized I could have made it even easier for myself, because the whole idea was that I would print out family activities on business cards and slip them into the activity calendar. Well, I decided to include the numbers on the business cards, too. Each business card holder slot will hold two (or even three!) cards – the day-number card in front followed by an activity card (or two). And, of course, I couldn’t put something like this together without sharing it. (Also in hindsight, I never even needed to make a business-card calendar because we can just use our classroom calendar pocket chart.
Download the Christmas activity business cards in pdf format here.
Download the title page here.
UPDATE: Before we list the activities that are included in the download, we wanted to share a collage of some of the things we did last year. I cannot even describe how special this was for our family – the boys (and I!) are looking forward to making wonderful memories all over again!
Making Family Memories: A list of Christmas Countdown Calendar Family Activities
Follow Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood’s board Wood & Wire Project Ideas on Pinterest.
29. On your Advent wreath, light the 2nd candle. It reminds us that the coming Savior will be the Prince of PEACE. Isaiah 9:6-7
2:1-20
Potato Stamps or color Snowman Trinity cards)
59. Make a Christmas Advent Felt Calendar Display from HeartFelt Truths
60. Make Wire Sculpture Christmas Trees
61. Collect some twigs to make stick stars
62. Make Christmas Playdough
63. Create Salt-Dough Handprint Christmas Ornaments as gifts for grandparents!
64. Set up your Advent Candle Wreath or Display (Here’s a simple bucket-style Candle Display!)
65. Make a Christingle
66. Spend an afternoon making Gifts-in-a-Jar gifts
67. Make Advent Ornaments for the Christmas tree (the links to the Devotional include paper ornament templates – just cut and hang!)
68. Choose three of your toys to donate to a charity of your choice.
69. Make a Christmas Tree Tessellations art project.
70. Read Gift of the Magi or another Christmas-related short story
71. Sing and dance to Christmas songs
72. Create Map Ball Ornaments (or use travel brochures) for places you’ve traveled to this year
73. Scrabble (or other random game) night
74. Attend a Christmas performance or Living Nativity
75. Embark on a Names of Jesus study as a family
76. Make reindeer food.
77. Have a Christmas cookie or Jesse Tree ornament exchange party
78. String popcorn on the tree
79. Make a birthday cake for Jesus
80. Act out the Christmas story
81. Make felt mistletoe to hang in the doorway
82. Spend today serving others:
·Work at a clothing closet or food kitchen/pantry.
84. Shop from Christmas catalogs from World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, Gospel for Asia, or other charity
85. Use Christmas cookie cutters to make a lunchmeat-cheese-and-cracker snack
86. Donate canned food to the local food pantry.
95. Do Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.
96. Share these Christmas Scripture Cards with your family and with others.
97. Go on a Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt.
98. Read through the scriptures this month with a Free Printable Advent Reading Calendar