Christmas Countdown
One of my favorite holiday rituals is our Christmas Countdown.
In the days leading up to Christmas, the boys select a holiday-themed activity (from a stack of pre-written cards) for us to do after school.
As the boys grow and evolve over the years, the list of activities changes slightly.
Here’s what I’m thinking for this year:
- Visit a small-town Christmas parade
- Drink eggnog
- Drink hot chocolate (with homemade whipped cream in a can?)
- Make marshmallows
- Visit the 37th Street Lights
- Go ice-skating
- Attend an arts and crafts festival
- Make chocolate chip cookies and deliver them to people experiencing homelessness
- Make gingerbread houses
- Make baked goods for colleagues and neighbors
- Carve holiday stamps and make gift tags for neighbors
- Cut down an evergreen tree (or buy a potted one and plant it after Christmas) and decorate the tree
- Deliver baked goods and notes while looking at Christmas lights in the neighborhood
- Volunteer at an organization serving people experiencing homelessness
- Make pop-up cards to send to family
- Make dried oranges
- Watch a holiday movie and drink rootbeer floats
- Let the boys sleep under the Christmas tree
- Make big snowflakes
- Have a snowball fight
- Sit around a fire, make S’mores, and sing carols
- Make and decorate sugar cookies
- Invite friends over for fondue and to play Noel Games
Supply List for Christmas Countdown
My intention is for our Christmas Countdown activities to feel joyful and fun—not stressful. So I like to purchase all the supplies at once. That way, we are ready for whichever activity they pick on a given night.
- Flour
- Sugar
- Chocolate chips
- Paper sandwich bags
- Soft rubber for stamps
- Stamp-making tools
- Stamp pads
- Colored cardstock
- Ribbon or twine
- Supplies for baked goods
- Something to wrap up baked goods
- Hot chocolate mix
- Whipping cream (for homemade whipped cream)
- Powered sugar (for homemade whipped cream)
- Vanilla extract (for homemade whipped cream)
- A holiday movie
- Holiday music
- Gingerbread kits
- Graham crackers (for gingerbread house and S’mores)
- Tea candles
- Egg nog
- Vanilla ice-cream
- Root beer
- Presents for Noel Games
- Cheese fondue
- Christmas crackers
- Marshmallow supplies (gelatin, cane sugar, corn syrup, vanilla)
- Chocolate bars