I first saw this idea from Ralphie of Simply on Purpose. Each day, we do a (usually simple) Christmas activity together as a family. As Ralphie says, the greatest gift of all is time! So this is a great way to spend intentional time together as a family each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. Here’s how we go about doing our gifts of togetherness (GOT), as well as the ones we settled on this year.
How We Schedule Everything
I start off by printing out Ralphie’s GOT pages and cutting them out. I then quickly sort them into 3 piles: definitely yes, definitely no, and maybe. She also provides some blank ones, so I fill those out with extra things that we do that aren’t already in her list.
Next, I draw up a big calendar of December on kraft paper so that I can place each adventivity (advent-activity, get it? :D) in a spot on the calendar but still easily move things around.
Then, I place my “yes” items onto the calendar, especially anything that happens on a particular day. Once I’ve placed all my yeses, I look through the maybes and place them in the open spots, and sometimes I brainstorm more ideas.
During this phase, I try to break up similar activities (I try not to put two crafts or two treats right next to each other, for instance) and plan easier items for days I know we’ll be busier. For our family, Wednesdays and Fridays are especially tricky because we’re only home all together until about 9am (then Ada has preschool, and before she gets home, Russ leaves for work), so I keep that in mind when doing the planning because we want these to be family activities as much as possible!
Once I’m satisfied with the tentative plan, I take a picture of my calendar so I can always know what’s coming up, and then I put each slip of paper in its corresponding spot in our adventivity calendar, along with a little treat.
To help me stay on top of things, I look at what adventivities are coming up and make a list for each week that includes anything I might need to buy or do to make that week’s adventivities happen smoothly. I make these lists before the start of December (and note them in my planner), and then I only have to do a few items each week of December.
This whole practice is a great way to remember to say YES to things we really want to do, and NO to things we do not want to do! There are soooo many holiday activities we could do — gingerbread houses, ice skating, see the Nutcracker, attend a Christmas concert — and while these are good activities, they’re not things our family needs to do to have a wonderful holiday, and trying to fit it all would really stress me out! Especially for now, while our kids are young, very simple activities suffice, and those are the kinds of activities I know I can commit to. I also love that I can re-analyze this every year and consider some of these activities for our adventivity calendar in the future, even if we don’t do them now :)
Our Adventivities this year
We do many of the same things from year to year, but occasionally we’ll swap out a few of them. We also celebrate Christmas on a different day sometimes due to my husband’s work schedule, so sometimes we start a few days early or late.
Welcome December Boxes - Christmas pajamas, Christmas pillowcases, and Christmasy outfits, all wrapped up as the first gifts of the season. This way the kids can use their Christmasy things all month long!
Indoor Snowball Fight - I bought some indoor snowballs for GOT last year, and I had no idea how much FUN they would be! I made sure to put this one early on so that we could have many snowball fights throughout the season. (Here are similar snowballs to what we have. We only have 16 and it’s plenty!)
Gift Shopping - We used this shopping trip for two different things — siblings gifts and our service gifts. The girls helped pick out items for the people we were serving, and then they picked out gifts for each other (Russ took Ada and I took Holly).
Do a Christmas Craft - I got a pre-made kit from Hobby Lobby for $1.50. That’s my kind of craft!
Do a Holiday Puzzle - This one will be more fun as our kids get older, but I still had fun working on a Christmas puzzle from my childhood — one that I did every Christmas with my family! Ada helped a little 😅
Devotional & Christmas Corn - Every December, the leaders of my church give a Christmas devotional, so we watch that on TV while we eat Christmas corn, which is just popcorn with white chocolate and Christmas sprinkles drizzled over it.
Drink Hot Chocolate with breakfast - Hot chocolate is always more fun if it’s with breakfast!
Read Christmas books - We have a bunch of Christmas picture books that only come out in December, which keeps them special! This year we also started a Christmas chapter book for the first time, and that has been really fun because it’s the most complicated chapter book I’ve ever read with Ada, but she still loves it! (Though if I had known the content of the book beforehand, it’s not one I would have chosen as a Christmas book for a 5-year-old . . . it’s just not happy enough! haha)
Make up a Christmas Dance - Pick an upbeat Christmas song and choreograph a short chunk of it together. Our whole family likes to dance, so this is one that I think will be even more fun as the years go on.
Santa Beards - Spray whipping cream on your face in a beard shape and try to snap a picture before the beard falls off!
Do a Christmas Craft - We had something else planned for this day, but it didn’t end up working out so I just switched it for another craft at the last minute. Ada loves to craft so she didn’t mind! (I cut a Christmas tree out of green paper and had the girls glue on pom poms for ornaments.)
Make Presents for Grandparents - This year the girls each painted one side of a gingerbread man shaped ornament, and I cut out their faces to go on the side they painted! I feel really proud of this simple idea haha :)
Make Cookies - This year we did our regular Christmas sugar cookies so the girls could use the Christmas cookie cutters.
Decorate Cookies - sprinkles are the worst, but kids love them!
Christmas activity with grandparents and cousins - Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for a fun activity, dinner, and a little Christmas service. This is an example of one of those activities that we would have done either way, so it was really easy to just write it down and count it for our adventivity that day!
Just Dance Christmas songs - We love “Just Dance,” and you can YouTube “Christmas Just Dance” and do a bunch of Christmas ones!
Fill Santa’s Sack - Declutter your toys and give them to Santa to fix up for someone else! We leave the items in a bag under the tree on Christmas Eve.
Candy Cane Hunt - Hide a bunch of candy canes around the house and have the kids find them.
Christmas Coloring Page - This year we’re using an old one from Everyday Reading and printing it out in a big size!
Santa Shakes - Peppermint ice cream mixed with egg nog. It’s a little intense for me, but Russ and Ada liked it last year so we’re giving it another go this year!
Sing Christmas Carols together - We have no plans to go caroling to other people, but we’ll do it together in the comfort of our own home!
Watch a Christmas Movie - We have a family movie night every Monday, and on this particular Monday, we’ll be celebrating Holly’s birthday throughout the rest of the day, so this an easy way to still give us a Christmas adventivity that day!
Look at Christmas Lights - We’ll probably just drive around our city and look at people’s house lights, but maybe we’ll get adventurous and find a light display to go see!
Bethlehem Dinner - Every Christmas Eve, we eat by candlelight (and Christmas tree light), dress up like shepherds, eat some of the foods they may have eaten in Jesus’s time, take on Bible names, and speak as though we live in that time — sharing Bible stories and specifically the nativity story.
My hope with this tradition is that quality family time feels like an important and wonderful part of Christmas time. I have work to do, though, because I often find myself getting frustrated when activities don’t turn out how I thought they would. Some adventivities are wonderful, and others are a mess, but hopefully it’s a family tradition we’ll all be able to look back on with fondness someday! :)