Advent Calendar Activities

This will be the first year we've used an Advent Calendar, but we are changing things up a bit. First thing is....we aren't doing any sweets or candy with it, but instead we are doing an activity each night of the week. Second thing is....I don't even have an advent calendar. Hopefully before the end of the week I'll be able to either buy one or make one, so in the mean time I have a list that I wrote up that we are going off of.

Here is a peak at our list of activities this year:

1. Watch a Christmas movie with some hot cocoa

2. Write letters to Santa

3. Go walk around a local town to look at Christmas lights

4. Make Christmas cookies and surprise a neighbor or two with them

5. Write Christmas letters to relatives we will not see for the holidays

6. Visit Santa at the mall

7. Clean out some toys and donate them to Goodwill

8. Make some Christmas candy

9. Watch the movie "A Christmas Story"

10. Sleep under the tree

11. Make a gingerbread house

12. Make some reindeer food

13. Read a Christmas story before bed

14. Set out Santa's cookies and the reindeer food

15. Make paper snow flakes

16. Make a count down chain

17. Make some Christmas sugar cookies

18. Make cinnamon rolls to eat on Christmas morning and take a few trays to a few friends

19. Donate old coats to the needy

20. Watch a Christmas movie

21. Write a round table Christmas story

22. Play board games all day

23. Watch a Christmas movie

24. Go to my sister's house on Christmas Eve to eat, make cookies and watch movies and play games!

*I got several (if not most) of these ideas from The Idea Room*

Obviously, this list is not in any kind of order. Since we are homeschooling and lots of things happen during the day that can throw me off schedule, I want to be able to control what we do each day by picking an activity that morning. That way if plans change, the kids won't be disappointed too much.