Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Flexible Advent Calendar




In an attempt to focus on the approaching season, I am going to apologize now for any sporadic posting. I'm trying to hold myself accountable to being really present this year and not overdoing things. You other "over-doers" know what I mean, right? With the silly Elf, advent calendars, homemade gifts, and regular holiday shopping it can all get a little hairy. My motto this year is to do what I can when I can and always remain flexible. 

Therefore, I've tweaked our advent calendar this year to suit that need for flexibility. Last year it sort of stressed me out if I couldn't get to the activity due to life happening. 

Our advent calendar is done via the sock method. I saw this on Pinterest a few years ago and loved it. I bought Christmas themed socks at the dollar store in various sizes and printed out the numbers from here. I glued the numbers on clothespins and there you have it. Easiest advent calendar ever. 

There were days last year where I would do a switcheroo mid sock grabbing because I knew we didn't have enough time to do the activity for that day. Things got a little mixed up doing this on the fly, so this year I created the above sticky note calendar. That way, I can look at my cheat sheet calendar the night before, the morning of, or right before we pull the sock down and switch the sticky notes/socks if need be. For instance, some socks just have a small dollar store toy in them or something like stickers. If I know we are going to grab a full on activity and we don't have time I can switch that sock with a treat sock and all is well. I also color coded the calendar using pink as a big craft, green as a treat, orange as cooking/gift giving, and blue as an excursion.

I am doing some of the same activities from last year and a few new ones. Here they are! 

Dec. 1 * Pictures with Santa
Dec. 2 * Decorate Outside
Dec. 3 * Put up and decorate our big felt tree (link here
Dec. 4 * Stickers!
Dec. 5 * Make "stain glass" window decorations (link here)
Dec. 6 * Watch a Christmas movie
Dec. 7 * Reindeer craft (link here)
Dec. 8 * Make popsicle stick ornaments (christmas tree, reindeer, stars) (great links here and here)
Dec. 9 * Nights of Lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens
Dec. 10 * Small Dollar Store Christmas Toy! 
Dec. 11 * Make Snow Globes (link here)
Dec. 12 * Make cookies for mailman
Dec. 13 * Watch a Christmas movie
Dec. 14 * Go look at Christmas lights (either drive around or go to Lake Lanier if we can swing it)
Dec. 15 * Make cookies for Garbage Collectors (to be given tomorrow morning)
Dec. 16 * Make a gingerbread house
Dec. 17 * Small Dollar Store Christmas Toy!
Dec. 18 * Sweet treat!
Dec. 19 * Make gifts for the girl's friends
Dec. 20 * Marshmallow Snowmen (link here)
Dec. 21 * Christmas Dinner With Friends
Dec. 22 * Make gifts for family
Dec. 23 * Make reindeer food (link here)
Dec. 24 * Open Christmas Eve Goodie Box (includes Christmas pajamas, Christmas book, Christmas movie, snacks and hot chocolate for movie)
Dec. 25 *

SIDE NOTE
If anyone is curious about all of the gift making we are doing I am happy to email you links separately for those ideas. Just shoot me a message or leave a comment. Family and friends are reading so I'm trying to keep those ideas a little bit of a secret!

If you have any fabulous advent calendar ideas please do share. 

2 comments:

  1. You amaze me! I don't even understand most of what you're saying! You are definitely your father's child! There was never a more organized person than him ... until you!! That's a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How did I miss this awesome post?!

    We do a book a day advent, but I love some of these ideas for festive things to do! You're missing a hot cocoa date on there somewhere!

    ReplyDelete

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