Our Family Christmas Activity List {So We Could Simplify The Holidays}
Before December came we sat down as a family and made a christmas activity list of items we wanted to do. Basically Sean and I wanted to control the month and not let it control and overwhelm us.
Here is the list we made, after thinking through what was most important to us.
Our Christmas Activity List
- Go to a Messiah Performance (my sister sings in it every year).
- Go look at Christmas lights
- Make goodies for neighbors
- Have our annual Christmas baking day with family (You can see my Dessert Pinterest Board for some of my ideas!)
- Make paper decorations for the house (the children made snowflakes at a church activity so that took care of this one!)
- Have a chocolate milk and cookie party and invite my sister and her boys over
- Read lots of Christmas books (we are doing this through our daily Advent book).
- Take time off of our usual history and science and do a unit study on the Farmer Boy book.
- Be more thoughtful about Christmas gifts. Our children are getting three gifts each (or around there 😉 )
- Take one day and make cookies at home to ice with the children (baking days are a little crazy and more for the adults while the children play).
- Practice Christmas music on Cello/Violin to have ready to perform for our family Christmas gatherings.
- Make a Lego Nativity
This list is keeping us plenty busy this month! There is more we originally had down, but I have had to cross off because I can tell we just are not going to get to it. I have to keep things simple, in order to survive and still be a good mom. 🙂
I’d love to hear what kind of things you are doing this month as a family!
We are doing the Children’s Christmas Program at church this weekend, had a Christmas music sharing service last weekend, will do a cookie and carols gathering at my sister-in law’s parents house next weekend, and do gingerbread houses the next day. That’s all I can muster up strength for this year. My teens have extra Christmas activities at church, and I have a couple for the choir that I direct. That keeps us hopping!
Our family celebrates Advent by doing a family activity each day – 24 in all. We do things like: make a gingerbread house, make ornaments, read stories, and bless others. It’s a lot of fun and we all look forward to this special time. 🙂
Sometime, if you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d love to know what your giving your children for Christmas gifts! 🙂 Mine are close in age, and I’m still looking for a few ideas.
I have thought about sharing, I was just scared my children would somehow see my blog post about it before Christmas! They are not allowed on the computer to browse, unless they go to an educational site so I think I could do it safely. 😉