I LOVE it. It's another tradition that my family has. My Granny has now made one for every grandchild of hers and we all get to carry it on. There is a pocket for every day from Dec 1-24 and in it is a scripture to read, a figure from the nativity to put on the scene above and a card with an activity on it to do that day. It is the PERFECT way to have a great, organized December with many fun activities. It can be big or small or something completely silly. We all took a turn opening them daily and loved creating the nativity scene.
I'm having a hard time with it this year, however, because I have sat down about 5 times to figure out what activities I can put in there and I can't come up with ANYTHING. My brain is gone.
What are things to do in December with 4 smallish children in Edmonton and/or Calgary?
What are things that we should make a Christmas/December tradition for our family?
What things has YOUR family done that you love and would never change?
I figure that right now is the time to make Cahoon Family Traditions that our kids will always remember. Do YOU have any suggestions? I am at a complete and total loss... I don't want my kids to grow up without any traditions because they have a brain dead Mom.
PLEASE HELP ME!!
11 comments:
We always used to make my dad cookies for him to take to work.
we go carolling every year. make chocolates. make sugar cookies. go to the nativity at heritage park. the lights on 14th street/the zoo lights. we do a gift exchange - we have to find the neatest thing for under 10 bucks and do the "white elephant" game. read and act out the christmas story. if the weather isn't -40 (like last year...) we used to go skating at bowness park; i haven't tried that with ALL the kids yet, so I'm not sure how it'd go over.
that's all i can think of at the moment that we do. can't wait to hear other traditions :)
Haha, I like Jarett's comment. We make (or decorate pre-made) gingerbread houses, act out the nativity, read lots of Christmas stories, do secret Santa or the 12 days of Christmas to people, we loved trying not to get caught, do service, drive around to look at the lights. Just writing all this is making me so excited for Christmas!!! Good luck finding traditions your family will cherish.
string popcorn
make snowflakes and hang them on your ceiling
decorate the house/trim the tree
make gingerbread houses
sing around the piano or at a nursing home or go caroling
read a Christmas story
watch a Christmas movie
go tobogganing
go skating
make treats one day, deliver another
visit Santa
open surprise Christmas package (something to help you celebrate the season) wrapped in multi-layers with a fork
First Presidency devotional
ward Christmas party
Special Family FHE about Christmas
Crazy dinner
And violin Christmas recitals on the calendar?
Okay, that's all that's immediately coming to mind that we put on ours. Good luck!
It is funny because living in California we have all these new traditions that we would not have had back home...like going to Disneyland for different Christmas things. It is so fun.Our community does a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. They have so many things here that are already planned...which is great...you don't have to sit and think too much...lol.We always make Ginger Bread houses, go to Candy Cane lane when we were in Edmonton ( even if it is not the greatest), I have special Christmas books that only come out at Christmas and we read them often. Sugar cookies, baking. I always get the kids Christmas crafts to do.There are lots we do with Darren's family...but I think it is nice to have some of your own as well.
I LOVE your Granny's calender. What a great idea.
We basically do most of what has already been written, however a favorite one of mine is what we call the $3 dinner. Each person is given $3 and they can choose whatever they want to buy to help make dinner. My little kids (with the exception of the baby) really love this tradition. They get so excited when they pull the $3 Dinner activity out of our calendar (we have the same one as you) and they can't wait to do it again this year.
If I remember correctly, our dinner last year consisted of 4 mini pizzas, crackers, happy face fries, 6 mini pepperoni sticks, Christmas cookies, chips and hamburger helper. Its always hilarious what the kids come up with!!!
So I have no ideas but I am totally stealing all of these ones. I have had the same problem coming up with ideas
fun posts ashley... i need to catch up on blogging... i'm so behind... story of my life! we love to go sledding on christmas eve day and stop at fatburger on the way home... the best milkshakes!! we also love to go pixieing... act out the nativity, and eat lots of chocolate...
Love your advent calendar - what a great idea. One of our traditions that we do every year with my husband's family is make sugar cookies and then decorate them with icing and candy - you could have all the kids help you bake one day and decorate the next. It's so fun to see what kind of decorating ideas kids come up with (usually it involves copious amounts of icing!). Have fun!
Everybody pretty much said what I was going to say. The only other thought I had was that at Southcenter you can decorate cookies in Santas Kitchen for free.
our tradition would be go have cinnimon buns for christmas morning, and we used to make them the night before or the 23rd. also going to the lake to look at lights , also my mom would take us on a "midnight walk" about a half hr before bed we would get in our PJ's and then get in our snowsuits and go for a sleigh ride, and sing, we always thought it was like midnight even though it was only like 6:30 we only would go for like 20 mins but it was so fun, then we would have steamed milk to get us warm and put us to sleep! (cheap big sleighs at walmart if you dont ave one)
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