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Make a video of the kids singing a Christmas song and share it on Facebook for friends and family to enjoy
#Drive ahead advent calendar free
And if you're worried about accidentally going to a page with a computer virus or malware, Oriental Trading is a reputable online store that has free coloring pages here.ģ. Just do a Google search for "printable Christmas coloring page/word search/ maze", then let your kids pick their favorite(s), print, and you're done. Color a Christmas picture (or for older kids, do a Christmas word search or maze) Combine with snacks, hot cocoa or candy canes if you want to make it even more fun.Ģ.
#Drive ahead advent calendar movie
If you don't have any of those, just schedule this for a night when you know there's a Christmas movie playing on TV, or watch a movie you already own. Here are some available on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. (Who's going to complain if they have to watch more than one Christmas movie in December?)ġ.
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Some of these can even be used more than once. So if you forgot to plan ahead for an activity or just don't really feel like doing anything on a particular day, this is your go-to list. These require either no prep at all or prep that you can do at home in a few minutes or less at the beginning of the activity. That way our schedule can change or we can have an unplanned lazy day without it messing up our calendar. Rather than pre-filling every box in our calendar with activities, I decide the night before (or even the morning of) which activity I'm up for doing each day, then just write it down and stick it in for the kids to find.
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Things to do for others that help your kids celebrate the season by helping other people, andĮverything else, which is probably self explanatory. Stuff you were (maybe) going to do anyway activities that help you to incorporate your normal holiday preparations into an advent calendar activity Plan-ahead slacker activities that require you to prepare in advance but need little or no extra effort on your part on the days you actually do them Super-slacker activities that require literally no advance planning or preparation (And even if you don't do an actual advent calendar, you can use this list for ideas of things to do when your kids start to declare themselves to be "bored" when they're stuck inside on cold winter days.) Whenever I mention buying something, I've tried to include helpful links - Amazon will pay me a few cents if you buy something using one of the the links I've included here, but none of the other links will. But if you have a day or two (or ten) where you still want to do something fun and Christmassy with your kids, but you don't want it to be a lot of work, this list should help you. On days where you want to do something super fun and exciting ("March in a Christmas Parade!" "Horse-pulled sleigh ride in the park!" "Build a life-sized igloo out of milk cartons!"), do it. True story.Įnter the "Slacker-Friendly Advent Calendar Activity List". This was supposed to have a picture of our advent calendar in the background,īut I appear to have somehow LOST it. Except that you can't tell a kid "We're going to do something fun and Christmassy every day!" and then not do something fun and Christmassy every day. It's not that I didn't want to do it at all anymore: I did and still do! But I wanted to be able to do the super fun stuff some days, and not leave the house or change out of our pajamas other days. We decorated! We saw Santa! We went to the zoo to see the Christmas lights! Then a week or two in, I realized that I didn't necessarily feel like doing super-involved Christmas activities with a toddler every day for 24 consecutive days. When I started out the first year, I had big, BIG plans of doing something amazing and festive and meaningful with my then-three-year-old son every day from December 1-24.
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(I got our advent calendar at a craft store, but you can find them on Amazon, too.) My kids love it, and I really love it too. The idea is that each morning they open a little door to find a slip of paper that says what Christmas activity we'll be doing that day.
For several years now, I've been doing an activity advent calendar with my kids.
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