Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendars

December 1st begins our traditional advent calendar countdown to Christmas.  Through the years we have had various types of calendars.  One of my first calendars as a child had a door I opened each day to discover a piece of chocolate from Germany.  When I moved to my first tiny apartment in New York City, my advent calendar was one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art where each door unlocked a picture from the museum's extensive collection.

Our favorite family advent calendar for the past few years has been one we found at Starbach’s.  It originally included a piece of chocolate in each drawer, but we have re-filled the drawers with new items.  I have also in the past included in each drawer a passage from the Bible recounting the story of the birth of Christ.

A few weeks ago when we were in Ikea we found a new advent calendar to add to our extensive collection.  If you are not near an Ikea, it would be very easy to recreate this same calendar, since it basically consists of small colored bags marked with numbered stickers.

To include the entire family in this activity, we divided the bags so that each family member was responsible for filling a certain number with various surprises.  Every day we take turns opening our calendars.

Advent calendars are easy to fill and they are wonderful opportunities to create new traditions during the holidays.  There are so many possible ways to fill the calendars.  Following are a few ideas:

Family Activities:
on small pieces of paper write an activity you could do as a family.  Think of a new activity for each day of the advent calendar. (i.e. sing a Christmas carol, make hot chocolate, decorate sugar cookies, watch a Christmas movie together, read a Christmas story, bake cookies)

Service Project:
on small pieces of paper write a service project you could do as a family.  (i.e. bake bread or cookies for a neighbor, go Christmas caroling in the neighborhood, visit someone who is not near their own family during the holidays, make homemade Christmas cards, shovel a neighbor's sidewalk)

Religious:
read a passage each day from the Bible recounting the story of the birth of Christ.

Treats:  include small treats such as chocolate, candy or mini toys in each bag.

Secret Santa:  on each day, have someone be a secret santa to another member of the family by doing kind things for that person.  Each day family members could share nice things that were done for them.

Count your blessings:
Each day family members could write on a piece of paper one thing they are grateful for that day and place it in the calendar.  On Christmas Eve the family could read all of the papers that have been placed in the calendar.

I love the tradition we have in our family of opening advent calendars.  I also like the fact that we are not impatiently counting down the days.  We are enjoying every single moment leading up to Christmas day.  This adds great meaning to the holiday season.

Create new traditions with your family this holiday season.