‘Tis the Season for FAMILY!

Hark! How the bells, sweet silver bells…

All seem to say, “Throw cares away”

Have you stopped to think of the lyrics to this song? The bells may say “throw cares away,” but I don’t know of anyone who is listening. The cares seem to pile up, from where I’m sitting. I’m not going to list any here because I don’t want to give any ideas, but you know what I’m talking about.

I do want to give you some sweet ideas that are super easy and will give your family special memories to look back on for years to come. Consider it an early Christmas gift from Little Shoes Academy!

Now that my children are adults, some of my favorite conversations include the girls reminiscing about activities we did as a family when they were younger. Physical gifts are rarely mentioned. It’s the experiences we gifted them that bring back the family closeness. And if you read to the end, we have a special Christmas gift for your family to enjoy!

Top Five Christmas Activities (from the Jenkins family)

Making Food – When the cousins or friends came over, a favorite activity was to give each child a sugar cookie and a palette of festive edibles to decorate with. Paper plates are essential for a quick clean up. Take a small dollop of white frosting for each child and put in a paper bowl. Add a few drops of red or green frosting and let each child stir to make the frosting Christmas ready. Spread the frosting, then top with red/green/white sprinkles, mini M@Ms, dried fruit, or other Christmas goodies you can easily find at any store. Enjoy with a cup of milk or hot cocoa!

Making Ornaments – My personal favorite thing to do was to help my children make ornaments. This is a picture of one of our special ornaments. Consider making some sturdier ones that will last the test of time. Having said that, here is a quick method to make the ornament in the picture… We used glass ornaments but that was back in the olden days. Now they have clear plastic ornaments. I would suggest you use those. Open the top and add a few drops of a liquid acrylic paint and turn it several times while upside down to make swirls. Add another color and repeat. Do again with a third color. Set it upside down with the opening in a plastic cup to catch the drips. Turn every few minutes to create the swirls. Let it dry overnight. These look pretty good for being 20 years old, don’t they?

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Decorating the House – Use this time to make fun Christmas decorations you can display this year. Then save them for the future as your littles grow! You can make a Christmas tree like this for easy storage. Another fun idea is to take a paper plate and let your child paint it green (or skip this step by buying green plates!). Then cut a hole from the center to make a wreath. Let your child decorate by painting red berries with Q-tips, or find some festive stickers. Add a bow for pizzaz.

Looking at Christmas Lights – This can be a spur of the moment fun, or done with meticulous planning (I’ll admit, I’m the latter). I will scope out social media to find the houses that get the most “wows” in our area. Then I map them out. I make a large batch of homemade hot chocolate and put them in to-go cups. Add Christmas music to the play list, and off we go! We still do this even as our children are grown. Some of the houses are so spectacular we will park the car and walk around. Added bonus if you live near Charlotte, North Carolina. The Billy Graham Library has an amazing “Christmas at the Library.” It is free, complete with live animals and beautifully lit grounds to enjoy.

Remembering the Reason for the Season – I am assuming many people that come to our blog know our Christian background. We go beyond the festive lights and holiday music to the source… celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Recognizing Christ in our Christmas traditions truly makes the special memories meaningful. We never take for granted all that we have, and the sacrifices that our king went through to ensure we could live with peace and joy through Him!

Since Christ is a FREE gift, we wanted to give you a special free gift as well. I made an advent calendar as a pdf for anyone who wants to create some special experiences leading up to Christmas Eve.

An advent calendar can be done in a variety of ways. I made sweet Christmas wreaths, each with a number leading up to Christmas eve. I suggest you print the wreaths on cardstock so they won’t curl.

I then made the same number of fun activities and crafts. Print those on regular paper, cut out and glue to the date that will fit your family’s schedule. Then hang those wreaths across a wall using ribbon. You can make a long strand, or several shorter strands above each other. Attach the wreath in number order onto the ribbon.

On December 1st, turn the first wreath over and do the activity that is listed. That’s it! Keep turning a new wreath over each day and complete the activity. It is a fun way to do the countdown to Christmas while creating memories your children will talk about as adults.

I know this for a fact. I experienced the happy memories while my adult girls were decorating my Christmas tree this year. Then we watched Home Alone (I didn’t get a vote) as our family kickoff to Christmas. Since we live in different states, our memory-making time is much more limited these days. Take my advice and make those memories with your children now. You will be so glad you did.

Download Your FREE Advent Calendar Here!

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