A Holiday Guide to Activities

+ what I'm (actually) getting my kids for Christmas

I know, I know. We’re all busy putting the finishing touches on our spooky pumpkins and agonizing over the upcoming election (if you live in the United States, at least). But since we were already gearing up for the holidays with last week’s conversation about celebrating the holidays with less stuff, I wanted to offer some alternatives to a ‘stuff-based’ season. Advent calendars can be a fun way to soak in the magic of the season— and there are plenty of alternatives to advent calendars of chocolates or trinkets. As always, the last thing I want to do is add yet another thing to your closet or calendar, but committing to a month of family activities (big and small) and small acts of kindness can help keep the holidays feeling joyful without the focus on presents under the tree.

We have a Gathre advent calendar that we hang every year and fill with some treats and activities for the month. I use notecards to write out the days activities, but you can also get pre-printed Advent cards. If you have a full size tree, you could even suspend little envelopes with the activities for each day off the branches in lieu of a stand alone calendar.

Here’s our Advent Calendar list:

Bake Christmas cookies

Holiday lights scavenger hunt

Set up our wooden nativity set in the window

Visit the Holiday Lights show at our local botanical garden

Dance to holiday music (Rockin’ around the Christmas tree starts early in this house!)

Decorate the mini tree (this is sometimes stretched to multiple days by tucking special ornaments in the advent calendar pockets)

Christmas movie + hot chocolate

Go Ice Skating

Leave a holiday surprise on a friend or neighbor’s doorstep

Build a gingerbread house

Watch the local Christmas tree lighting

Wrap presents for loved ones

Have a family game night

Random Act of Kindness day(s)— you could buy someone’s groceries, leave an extra big tip, or donate to a food bank/ your favorite charity. Some people even do a full month of random acts of kindness!

Make a special holiday breakfast— cinnamon rolls is our go to!

“Christmas Book Flood” (or Jolabokaflod) with new books and chocolate

Kid-Specific

Begin our holiday reading (this year, we are reading one chapter of How Winston Delivered Christmas: An Advent Story in Twenty Four and a Half Chapters* every day)

Play with our Reindeer play dough/ sorting tray and holiday cookie cutters

Do reindeer/ Santa themed crafts (I am not the crafty mom, so this is all my husband’s doing— maybe popsicle stick snowflakes? or salt dough ornaments?)

Decorate holiday cards for loved ones

Visit or write a letter to Santa (we don’t try to convince our littles that Santa is real, but there is still magic in the idea. Our 4 year old especially loves talking about Santa, so we run with it! How do you think Santa gets into people’s houses? Do you think he’s cold delivering presents? Do YOU think he’s real or pretend?)

Other Ideas:

A winter hike has always been my favorite Advent activity, but I’ll be honest— if the weather is cold, I don’t know that I’ll be bundling up 3 kids under 5 this year. If it gets added to our calendar, it will be a last minute decision on a very sunny day.

Fill a ‘Santa bag’ of toys— with your kids— that they have outgrown or lost interest in. If your family goes all in on Santa, you can leave it under the tree for Santa to take with him. Otherwise, your littles can help you find a friend or neighbor to share their outgrown toys with. This is a great strategy if your family is just starting a minimalist journey or otherwise looking to be more intentional.

Photo by Dari lli on Unsplash

Shhhh, don’t tell my kids! This is what they’re getting for Christmas:

I’m perpetually fascinated by the way people actually live, rather than just the Instagram version of people’s lives. This holds true for house tours, budgets, and even Christmas presents. This week, I went down a rabbit hole of watching YouTube videos of moms documenting everything they are giving their littles for the holidays. I tend to believe in trusting your gut for your own kids— in other words, I won’t find the “perfect present” for my littles on anyone else’s gift lists (and you won’t find any answers on my list)— and besides, I’ve already done the bulk of my shopping. But it’s fascinating nonetheless to get a glimpse into the ways other people ‘human,’ so here goes:

My 4.5 year old girl: Her ‘big’ gift is a Micro Maxi Eco Scooter in big kid size! I got it as a warehouse deal a few months ago and have miraculously managed to keep it hidden. Her younger sister will inherit the smaller version of the scooter for her 3rd birthday. Also under the tree for my oldest will be a 12-book set of the Boxcar Children and a Lego Friends set.

My 2.5 year old girl: Her ‘big’ gift is a Wishbone Flip Rock n’ Ride, since violently riding a plastic rocker horse at the library is quite possibly my toddler’s favorite thing to do. She will get a few picture books, including Knight Owl* and Trees Make Perfect Pets*, and a Lego Friends set as well.

My newborn boy: Errrr… he was going to get a set of silicone blocks (realistically, to add to his big sisters’ collection), but I might have decided to use the blocks as the “Switch Witch” gift for my girls this Halloween, after my oldest batted her eyelashes and asked for more blocks build bigger houses (the American dream, y’all). The only for sure thing will be a Little Blue Truck book. I’ve also had my eye on this Nestig pickup toy bin for literally a year, but I’ll likely only pull the trigger if I find it secondhand.

Stockings? Each girl will get a few Yoto cards for their audio/ book player and likely a container of Whimsical Dough play dough, plus some yummy snacks. (Have you ever heard of putting a can of whipped cream in stockings, so kiddos can sweeten whatever food they want until the can is gone? I first read about this fun surprise in a comment on Cup of Jo years ago, and this might be the year to try it!) My littlest will be only a few days from being able to start purees, so he’ll get some treats in his stocking as well.

The littles do have other things on a Christmas list for family members, including more Legos, next-size shoes, and a few reading/ math games for my preschooler, so they won’t have any shortage of holiday magic— but with any luck, I won’t be scrambling to find homes for dozens of new things in the holiday aftermath.

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