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Last year I planned a whole load of crafts and activities, was over-ambitious and promised to blog in advance to let you in on how each activity was done. Now I managed to follow through for about a week or so then I couldn’t keep up, simply because December is a packed month of family activities – which is a good thing because that’s about the only month in the year that hubby is really less busy at work and is able to spend lots of time with us. Instead of swinging the other way and taking a blogging hiatus during the month, as I know some other bloggers do for the holiday season, I have decided that I would first of all go easy on myself and plan really simple activities, but not compromising on the fun the kids would have, and blog only when I can. There, I feel so much better already!

So here’s my list of activities (oh, have you checked our magnetic Christmas tree advent calendar which can be decorated and re-decorated??) and I’m also sharing some shots of the craft items I picked up at Art Friend the other day for these activities. Also, I’ve included in the list some of the activities I included in last year’s advent activities because I loved the activities so much or I didn’t get down to doing it in the end!

I’ve numbered the activities but that’s just for my convenience of making sure I’ve got all the 24 activities down. You can do them in whichever order you like! It doesn’t matter… much. 🙂 I’ve also included links to last year’s posts or to a blog that shows the activity, where possible.

Fun advent activities for kids 2013

1. Decorate a Christmas tree. I have failed to convince my hubby to get me a nicer Christmas tree so we’ll have to make do with our budget store one which is actually still looking fine, thankfully.

2. Decorate Christmas stockings. This year I picked up these foam ones which come with a loop already so these will get hung up somewhere this year.

3. We made a couple of snowflakes last year – glitter snowflakes and Q-tip snowflakes but this year we’re going easy and just making them from doilies and probably hanging them up on tinsel outside the house. View a 6-pointed snowflake tutorial here and here’s a Pinterest board for snowflakes paper patterns & tutorials to drool over.

4. Play with Candy cane shaving foam (peppermint scented shaving foam – add peppermint oil and red colouring and swirl! It won’t remain that pretty all the time but it will smell good). Last year we made peppermint Christmas playdough so we’re trying out shaving foam this year since it’s been such a hit this year.

5. Make a handprint Christmas tree. I’ve done this with my girl for two years but this will be the first year for my boy.

6. Decorate empty baubles. I managed to get baubles which open up and they even have different shapes apart from the usual spherical ones. I haven’t really thought about what to fill these up with but I’ve bought some Christmas-themed items hoping that those would work.

Fun advent activities for kids 2013

7. Make a counting book for little brother – either draw or use Christmas-themed stickers for the counting items. Little brother might just have to read this one. But I think he can help to paste some stickers! My girl has been interested in making mini-books ever since she made this book about emotions so this would be a nice activity (there’s a video tutorial embedded in that post on how to make a mini-book using a sheet of paper)!

8. Make Christmas gift tags with shipping tags, washi tape and various embellishments. Check out the Christmas gift tags we made last year using foam, glitter glue and other embellishments.

9. Play with a felt Christmas tree decoration busy bag. I’ve included a couple of busy bag ideas as we’ll be away on holiday for a few days during the holiday season so these would be great for entertaining the kids on the go while we wait for our meals at restaurants etc. In case you’re not sure what a busy bag is, it’s just a ziploc bag (for instance) where you store the materials in for the child to play with and it’s something portable and can totally entertain your kids. For the two busy bag activities included in this list, I’ve bought two small boxes (one for each child) to contain the items.

10. Take a night time walk to see the Christmas lights

11. Read a Christmas book.

12. Decorate snowmen craft – I bought these foam snowmen the other day and we’ll probably be decorating these with either felt or construction paper.

13. Make Christmas cards. Last year we made two batches – Christmas cards kids can make and Christmas cards made with kitchen supplies.

14. Bake cookies. Last year we made gingerbread man cookies and Christmas cupcakes but I’m thinking I might opt for something else this year… I’ve not decided yet. Any suggestions?

15. Paint paper mâché cones (as Christmas trees) and decorate with embellishments:

16. Gift bow painting.

17. Sing Christmas carols.

18. Play with a felt Gingerbread men busy bag

19. Make a Christmas tree photo frame.

20. Make wrapping paper.

21. Watch a Christmas movie.

22. Paint a Christmas tree standing clip (and attach a photo when done and gift it – or keep it):

23. Go for a Christmas gathering.

24. Make snowmen using doilies and construction paper.

There! All done! And if you want the 25th activity, I’ll suggest eating a Christmas brunch or at least have a delicious cup of peppermint hot chocolate!

I’m so looking forward to doing these activities and we might just not be able to control ourselves and start early! 😀

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Last year was the first year we made our very own advent calendar. We made a clothes pin advent calendar because I was crazy over those little rustic looking pegs. This year, I made a magnetic advent calendar because I had just gone crazy at Daiso buying magnetic tape and magnetic tacks and was devising ways to put those magnetic thingies to good use. Bottomline, I think I’m just a tad mad.

Anyway, to make the magnetic Christmas tree advent calendar, basically, I taped 3 pieces of A3 green construction paper together then drew in the tree (vertical for the topmost piece and horizontal for the other two). Then I used a sheet of drawing block for the ‘snow’ and a sheet of brown construction paper (cut to size) for the trunk. And the star is made from a sheet of yellow foam. And I stuck magnetic tape to some parts of the tree and star. Everything was drawn freehand so there are no measurements to share 😀 As for the important numbered baubles for jotting down the advent activities, I decided to re-use the Christmas-themed paper baubles I recycled from a Christmas project box from last year.

These are the colourful ‘baubles’. Lucky me that they are already nicely numbered for counting down to Christmas!

All I did was to write down the advent activities on the baubles (which I’ll be sharing in a separate post tomorrow) and I placed a magnet tack behind each of them. This was something my girl could help with.

The best part about this advent calendar? The kids can decorate and re-decorate the Christmas tree as they please, as many times as they want. My little boy wasn’t so interested and walked away after awhile but my girl did it several times over in one sitting.

Presenting our advent calendar 2013!:

We will be using some of the previous ideas from last year’s list of advent activities this year as we didn’t manage to complete every single one of the crafts, and we’ll definitely be doing the annual handprint Christmas tree as a keepsake. Last year, I didn’t have courage to do it with my fidgety and unpredictable boy but this year, I’m pretty sure he’ll manage to do it just fine because he has grown to love doing art and craft, just like his sister!