Ideas for Advent

catgoddess

catgoddess

Well-known member
Wes and I are doing Advent this year. We picked up a cute Santa Advent at Ikea and each daily box is about 1"x1"x2". We're going to split the days so we're each doing 12 so we can be surprised at least half the month. :D

I'd love some ideas on what to put inside the boxes. What do you put in yours besides candy?
 
Bible verses. ;) With my class last year (I worked at a church based program) I put in little bit of the nativity story to read each day.
 
We have always done an activity a day- bowling, wrapping gifts, hot cocoa and driving around looking at lights, etc.

This year- partly b/c my guys are bums and partly b/c I'm always stressed out during the season- we're mixing activities with Christmas movies and Christmas stories. I'll wrap some Christmas books from school and Luke can open and read a story on the story days. We'll have popcorn and watch a movie on the movie days. Then about half are activity days like the past years. WAY less stressful. Whew!
 
Oh, I love that Santa calendar! I love IKEA. So much.

The Bible verses are a great idea WITH a chocolate. ;) What about those fun little plastic parachute guys? Or something MINDBLOWINGLY awesome like this: Miniature Nativity made from grains of rice. You all are cat people right? Catgoddess??? ;) :D How about a miniature cat? I think miniatures & trinkets are especially fun if you decide to do this every year... you could get a knick knack shelf and fill it with them.

I think candy is nice... especially if you fill it with his favorites. Mine would be truffles, cherry cordials (messy though!)or something decadent like individually wrapped chocolates from Godiva.
 
I have three advent "calendars" going... haha... one lego, one with candy, and a Jesse Tree which has the bible verses... then we do elf on the shelf, too... and unwrap a "new" christmas book every night... and that doesn't all include all the other Christmas activities we do... I LOVE Christmas and I want J to be excited about it too! However, this year we won't be be doing the Polar Express Train ride - it sold out so fast this year... :(
 
I created cutsie little paper bags with Christmas goodies from the Sweetshoppe a couple of years back. Still look forward every year to using them, and think they also make an adorable decoration in my living room, stringed up and filled. I just do treats, though, nothing special!

I have a little tutorial on how to create them on my blog ...

Tutorial

 
I'd do a mix of things
Some days little pieces of candy - but decadent candy like truffles, or something he really likes that would be a true treat for him. (Buy in small quantities so you don't eat the rest!)

Some days I"d do coupons. A free back massage, get out of taking out the trash, a car wash/or take the car to get washed, etc. Things that would .

Some days I'd do a little treasure hunt and hide a little holiday gift in the house. Give him clues where to find it. Little things like Starbucks gift card, a book he'd like, holiday themed gifts, a new mug, etc.

Some days I'd plan a special date night or thing to do together. Put a clue in there to what it is and a time and then he gets a surprise. Driving around looking at lights in your PJ's while sipping milkshakes, Busch Gardens, an sunset picnic (make sure it's not too windy), a walk around the Botanical Garden in Largo (it's all lit up with holiday lights and they have music), dinner at a special place the two of you have wanted to try, etc.

Just for fun I'd find a small lump of coal just to swap out if you need to (wink, wink).
 
We also do what Kristin does. It can become overwhelming though so I have toned it down a bit and if we don't do something each day I don't stress about it.
 
We're also doing an activity a day. It's good that my daughter is on school break the whole month we can really do fun things.
 
Oh my gosh - I want that Santa!!! We've never done any advent activity - until this year. Got our oldest the Lego advent calendar from last year (it was on sale! and he won't know ;) ) But we are going to Minneapolis/Ikea Thanksgiving weekend...if this Santa is still available I;m totally getting it! Love all the ideas!!
 
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