The First 12 Days of Advent Activites

On the first day of advent activities, my parents gave to me, a snow day at Mt. Hood!

Haha! Okay, that song is going to get old real fast, so we’ll just tell you all about our first 12 days of advent activities this year. We planned a variety of activities that encouraged quality time together, creativity, and celebrating the magic of the holidays.

Advent Activity Day 1: Snow day at Mt. Hood!  Isla LOVES, LOVES, LOVES playing in the snow, so starting off the month with a trip to the mountain was a huge hit! Isla needed new ski boots, so we wrapped them up for her to open to add to the excitement.Me, as we were driving home that evening: Isla, what was your favorite part of our snow day?
Isla: (instantly) Eating the snow!

Clearly!

Isla even did her part to ensure Cole enjoyed eating the snow as well.He wasn’t so sure at first! His unimpressed face just kills me! Isla’s persistence paid off, however, as it wasn’t long before Cole was picking up snow, taking a bite and saying things like, “Mmmm!” and “Num num!”

This was Cole’s second time in the snow, but the first where he really had an idea of what was going on. Looks like he shares his sister’s love for the snow!

Our first advent calendar activity was absolutely wonderful! An afternoon in the snow was the perfect way to welcome December!Advent Activity Day 2: The kiddos opened their new Christmas books!

We LOVE adding books to our library, especially holiday stories! We make sure to open our new Christmas/winter books as one of our first advent activities so that we can enjoy them all season.

This year’s titles are:

•The Great Spruce
•Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree (Isla LOVES book and asks to read it every day!)
•Over and Under the Snow
•A World of Cookies for Santa
•Christmas Songs (this is a book that plays songs, and Cole was absolutely crazy about it.)

Cole’s musical book, Christmas Songs, was a HUGE hit! He thinks pushing buttons is great fun and he loves music, so it was the perfect combination. While he has played with musical books before, there was something about this one that totally captivated him. He started doing this hilarious dance we’ve never seen him do before, where he wildly swung his arms back and forth! He must have danced for a solid 15 minutes! It was SO great!Cole the Reindeer discovered the advent calendar one morning. He stretched way onto his tippy toes to reach it, and then proceeded to pull out as many of the drawers as he could!Advent Activity Day 3: Isla opened her Christmas Craft Box!Inside this year’s Christmas Craft Box:
• jingle bells • sparkly pipe cleaners • felt • snowflake decorations • peppermint candy beads •tape • festive ricrac • popsicle sticks • clothespins • a wooden tree ornament to paint • sparkly pom poms • Lastly, I like to tuck an inspiration page of holiday/winter craft ideas I think Isla might enjoy (I referred back to our winter kiddo art projects inspiration board on Pinterest!) into the box. The crafts on this page all use the supplies I included in the box. Sometimes we replicate the crafts, and other times we use them as a jumping off point for our own projects!Aaaaand, just like last year, of all the wonderful sparkly treasures in the craft box, Isla was most excited about her own scotch tape!!! She gasped and then excitedly shouted, “My own scotch tape?!” What’s even more hilarious is this is the same leftover roll from last year! Isla got straight to work crafting! First she made jingle bell and peppermint candy bead necklaces. Next we made the sweetest, simplest window ornaments using my laminator. Last year I asked for a laminator for Christmas. Yes, seriously. I had a bunch of project ideas floating around in my head, and so it seemed like a completely logical gift request

We traced circles onto the lamination sheets with a sharpie and Isla filled the circles with squares of tissue paper.

After running the sheets through the laminator, we cut out the circles. Then we glued a little square of glittery paper onto each (the ornament topper) and attached a sparkly pipe cleaner hook with a dab of hot glue. The ornaments look so bright and festive on Isla’s windows! This was such a fun and easy project. Get yourself a laminator!

Advent Activity Day 4: We went to go see the new Grinch movie with cousin Waverly!Isla recognized the words, “the Grinch” all by herself and was so excited! THIS series, however, shows her reaction when she learned we were going to the movie with Waverly. This girl sure loves her cousins!

In preparation for the movie, we made a green Grinch-inspired popcorn treat. We drizzled while chocolate and green sprinkles over the popcorn and then tossed it with holiday m&ms. So festive and tasty!

Advent Activity Day 5: Open a Christmas Game!

Isla unwrapped this cute deck of Santa playing cards (from the Target dollar section last year) and we used them to play memory! I’m looking forward to using these cards to teach her a few new games, like slap jack and war. Advent Activity Day 6: Write a letter to Santa.Isla worked hard on her letter…while Colina dressed up in her jewelry!“Dear Santa,
I think you worked really hard on making the toys. Good job! I wish you a merry Christmas.
For Christmas I would like a playhouse and a small orange kitty, my own real fruits and vegetables, diving goggles, my own Alexa (I can tell it to play Christmas music or lullabies. I can tell it to play anything!), a science lab coat, a science kit, and science goggles.
I think Cole would like his own coloring kit, bears, beep beeps, and his own beep boop beep (remote). He likes to play with stuff that beeps.
Good luck on Christmas. Thank you for everything.
xoxo,
Isla”Isla addressed the card herself. I melt!!! The excitement in her sweet little face as she mailed her letter to Santa was just the best!

Advent Activity Day 7: make birdseed ornaments for the birds! This is one of our favorite ways to practice thinking of, and providing for, others.

Last year I found this sweet angel ornament at an after Christmas sale. I stored it away, then wrapped it up for Isla so that she could have the excitement of opening it up. Pat! Pat! Pat! Isla had so much fun making birdseed ornaments for our neighborhood critters with her friends, Luke and Bellamy. We spent the evening with their family, listened to Christmas music, and ordered Teriyaki take out to keep things simple- we love how these advent activities help us spend even more time with people we love!  Thirty seconds after I handed Isla her birdseed ornament, she dropped it. I’m not going to lie, my initial reaction was to be annoyed. But then I quickly reminded myself that life happens! Since the ornament was no longer stable enough to hang, we decided to place it on the ground in an area where we’ve seen a lot of squirrels recently. Flexibility and problem solving: good life skills for kids to learn and grown ups to remember!Advent Activity Day 8: The Keizer Christmas Parade with Nana, Papa and the cousins!The cutest little row of parade-goers.While waiting for the parade to begin, Cole was so fascinated by the police cars blocking the start of the route, that he started WALKING towards them!!! We were totally shocked, as he has shown little to no interest in walking so far. He has maybe taken 2 or 3 teeny consecutive steps in the past, but nothing like this! We all cheered Cole on, but he kept his eyes fixated on the cars, calling out, “Beep! Beep!” It was absolutely amazing!!! The milestone was made even more meaningful being surrounded by family. Cole walked all the way to the police cars, where the officers greeted him enthusiastically and told us they had been watching him walk. So sweet! This progression of Isla seeing Santa at the parade is EVERYTHING! How do we bottle this precious sense of wonder and keep it forever?!Advent Activity Day 9: Ice skating with Wavy!The girls and dads had a great time on the ice together, and Isla was so excited to show her cousin all she’s been learning during her ice skating lessons.Cole is always intrigued by the ice skaters. Recently, however, Isaac introduced him to one of those coin operated car rides near the ice rink, so now after a few minutes of watching Isla skate, Cole turns to me, eyes wide and hopeful, and asks, “Beep, beep, car?”Advent Activity Day 10: Painting candy cane nails! I felt pretty worn down on Monday and actually spent most of the day in bed resting, so I was needing a simple advent activity that evening. Painting candy cane Christmas nails was just perfect! I had just planned to paint Isla’s nails, but she asked to paint mine for the first time and she was so excited about the idea I couldn’t say no!Advent Activity Day 11: Reindeer Pancakes with Piper!We made reindeer pancakes for the first time last year and it was such a fun and simple activity. Make large circular pancakes for the head, medium circular pancakes for the muzzle, and small oval pancakes for the ears. The kids can decorate their reindeer with chocolate chip eyes, cherry nose, and bacon antlers.The parents decided it would be fun to treat ourselves to a decadent brunch for dinner. We made fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup, bourbon whipped cream, and candied bacon. All served alongside festive forties! It was AMAZING! We all agreed a new tradition was born that night!Teaching Cole to play Shut the Box. Advent Activity Day 12: Make Snowy Pine Cones! A little messy, but a super simple, sparkly, and quick winter craft. Use little sponge brushes to paint Elmer’s glue on the edges of a pine cone and then douse it in glitter! We put a large, shallow cardboard box (this time of year we all have extra Amazon boxes laying around, right?!) out on the craft table and set all the supplies inside. It helped us keep the glitter and glue mess completely contained.We had so much fun using a few of these pine cones in another fun craft we’ll share with you soon!

The first 12 days of our advent activity allowed us extra time together and with so many of our loved ones. We cannot wait for the fun and togetherness that awaits during the next 13 days!