December is the time for advent activities. As a month, it’s an overwhelming one. Not just for children, but for parents too. Planned advent activities are a great way to calm things down – you can make sure the month is full of bucket emptying activities. Advent activities put the focus more on family and connection, and a little less on the explosion of presents and commercialism that comes with the festive period.

Sinterklaas and Christmas

A few years ago, I saw how excited my sons were in the build up to the 5^th of December (pakjesavond in the Netherlands), and again during the run up to Christmas Day so we started focussing on advent instead.

Advent Envelopes

Rather than an advent calendar with a chocolate in it and nothing else, we made 24 envelopes, each with a chocolate coin and an activity inside.

My three sons take turns to open an envelope and that day we do the activity stated on the card (or if necessary we save it for another day – don’t make life tough for yourself and keep it flexible!). It takes their focus away from pakjesavond and Christmas Day.

There are little spurts of excitement, balanced over December. It’s a way of releasing some excitement instead of bottling it all up for two specific days.

It is something that works well for us, and it makes December a lot of fun. It’s a special time to really connect as a family, and create precious memories.

Advent Activities

Activities can be as low-key and calm as you wish, or as thrilling as you can muster, depending on your own family. Use activities that are already scheduled in this busy month to make things easier for yourself.

So without further ado, here are 42 of the activities we have enjoyed over the past few years – all easy to adapt to where you live and things you have on hand.

1. Have an evening of winter or Christmas themed drawing. We did this last year and the results were so much fun: penguins in wooly hats, snowmen and reindeer galore
2. Go outside for a winter photo shoot
   
   

   

   
   
3. Tell a bedtime or Christmas story by candlelight
4. Eat dinner by candlelight: we do this on the evening of winter solstice to mark the shortest day of the year
5. Take an evening walk in your neighbourhood with (homemade) lanterns, glass jar candleholders, or torches
6. Attend a carol concert
7. Celebrate Pakjesavond (5^th December – a great example of something you may already be doing so no extra planning involved)
8. Eat dinner picnic style by the Christmas tree
9. Watch a Christmas movie as a family
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12. Decorate trees in your garden with lights
13. Make a Christmas tree decoration (salt dough ornaments are fun and easy to make and decorate and end up as a beautiful keepsake)
14. Take silly Christmas photos – wearing Christmas hats and pulling silly faces, for example. Let your children get behind the lens of your camera and make it a fun session for them
15. Bake Christmas cookies
16. Make a Christmas cake with the kids
17. Make paper snowflakes
18. Decorate the Christmas tree
19. Dance to Christmas music – the crazier the better
20. Make or colour Christmas cards for grandparents and aunts and uncles
21. Make a Christmas box for Christmas eve filled with, for example, a new DVD, hot chocolate sachets, popcorn, new pyjamas – things to encourage family time before bedtime
22. Go ice skating
23. Go to the local garden centre to see their Christmas displays (in the Netherlands this is a huge spectacle – every garden centre tries to outdo the others – and they are usually really magical for the children)
24. Look out for local attractions that transform into Christmas or winter wonderlands. In the Netherlands the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht becomes a winter station from the 20th December with live music, a skate rink, a carousel and marshmallow toasting outside on open fires. Dutch theme park the Efteling also transforms into a winter wonderland (from November).
25. Have a toy clear out and donate to children less fortunate
26. Choose a Christmas tree together
27. During this month, the animals deserve a gift too – make food holders or fat balls or cakes for the birds
28. Donate food to the local food bank
29. Make a special gift for grandparents or a family friend
    

    

    
    
30. Sit around a little fire outside in the garden with hot chocolate for the children, gluhwein for the grown ups and Christmas biscuits. Roast marshmallows
31. Make Christmas candle holders using jam pots, wire and tissue paper (see nr 5 for a follow up activity)
32. Visit a Christmas fair
33. Watch your town Christmas lights being turned on
34. Offer help to an elderly neighbour, a community club, or a family you know with a new baby
35. Go to a Christmas circus
36. Decorate a gingerbread house
37. Play in the snow (if the winter weather co-operates of course, and your climate is right)
38. Have a board game evening
39. Write a letter to Father Christmas
40. Make reindeer food to sprinkle outside your house on Christmas Eve
41. Have a family game night
42. Tell your children stories about Christmases from your childhood
43. Make mince pies
44. Make up a story together, each family member taking turns to add a few lines

Presence Not Presents

As Dr Seuss magically put it,

“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.”

So by the time we get to Christmas Eve December has been a month of connecting. By Christmas we have spent lots of quality time together and the excitement has been manageable.

This way, December becomes so much less about the presents and more about presence.