Family Advent Calendar

Every year when I was a kid we would each get one of those cheap Advent calendars with the waxy chocolate in them.  Remember those?  So many fond memories...the excitement and anticipation of what shape it would be next...my Dad pre-opening the little cardboard doors to make it easier for us to open (yeah right...he just wanted to see what it would be first! haha) They still make them, but now they have stepped up versions...Kinder surprise, Lego, PlayMobile, Barbie, etc.  They even have posh grown-up ones with Lindt chocolate in them.  Fancy!  And probably the coolest one for men that I saw recently was a Whiskey Advent calendar with tiny 3oz bottles of different whiskeys each day.  How cool is that!?  Unfortunately for the hubs, they only ship within the UK.  Drat!

I'm all about Christmas traditions so we will definitely be doing Advent calendars in my house too.  But being the crafter that I am, I couldn't just settle for the waxy chocolate kind...heck no.  So I just went about making my own with the one that Silhouette had available last year.  Here it is:

    

And rather then filling the entire thing with candy, I wanted to make it more about fun activities that we could do as a family.  Here's my list:

1. Unwrap an Advent Calendar present - Christmas Pajamas (I got them each a new pair for the holiday season)
2. Christmas chocolate (there has to be at least one)
3. Watch Santa Clause The Movie (anyone remember this one? John Lithgow, Dudley Moore...It's one of my all time favourites)
4. Make a Christmas craft
5. Shop for toys for Santa's Anonymous (trying to start teaching them early about the spirit of giving)
6. Snowman Pizza for supper 
7. Go see the CP Rail Holiday Train (I'm so excited for this!  And it's another way to show the spirit of giving as the goal of the train is to collect food and money for local food banks)
8. Build a gingerbread house (I have many fond memories of making these as a kid)
9. Watch the Polar Express movie or read the book
10. Make a Christmas craft
11. Unwrap an Advent Calendar present - Christmas aprons! (I found the cutest Christmas Aprons and chef hat sets for super cheap at Walmart)
12. Bake cookies - gingerbread men and sugar cookies
13. Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and have Grinch punch
14. Unwrap an Advent Calendar present - Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas book
15. Have Christmas hot chocolate
16. Go for a drive to look at Christmas lights
17. Make cinnamon Christmas ornaments
18. Go for a sleigh ride (not horse drawn, just our regular wooden one pulled by me)
19. Christmas shaped mini pizzas for supper
20. Watch Elf and have popcorn
21. Unwrap an Advent Calendar present - Snowman gum
22. Watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
23. Have Reindeer pancakes for breakfast
24. Make elf donuts and treats for Santa and his Reindeer
25. Unwrap an Advent Calendar present - a new Christmas ornament

I hope the kids have as much fun with it as I will!  Watch for pictures of these events posted on my blog in December.  I'm doing the December Daily scrapbooking kit so I'll be documenting all of our December fun!  Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by!