I can’t believe it’s already time for Advent calendar mornings! This one time of year the kids don’t drag around to roll out of bed and get dressed because they are eager to rush over and see what the calendar brings.

Do you do an Advent calendar or any kind of Christmas countdown at your house?

I’ve tried several different approaches to this. For a few years we did the calendars with the little piece of candy each day, one year we did a month of daily acts of kindness, last year we tried fun Christmas
activities and this year…

I think I’ve found the an advent calendar “formula” to make it pretty simple for me, special for them, and still include acts of kindness.

This year I got this calendar so I have room to stick a few fun items in like hot chocolate packets or their post cards to Santa. I love how it works as a large display piece too.

Next I split the 24 days up into categories:

In case you’re thinking that 8 days of events sounds crazy, the very first thing I do when looking at the Advent calendar is fill in the days with events that are happening around town or things I’ve already booked.

Things like local Christmas parades, downtown events, and the Santa train tickets I purchased back in August were the first squares of the calendar I filled. Other “events” are as simple as driving around to look at lights or taking the kids to the dollar tree to shop for their siblings (one of my favorite new
traditions we started last year!)

Plan around sports practices or add on to other busy nights you already have on the calendar. I know we have a school Christmas play in Dec so one “event” will be going for peppermint shakes afterwards.

Next, at home fun is made of the stuff you’d probably be doing anyway this Christmas season. Think: baking cookies, writing a letter to Santa, making hot chocolate. Simply writing these things down and sticking that piece of paper inside an advent calendar so the kids can be excited about it all day adds magic to almost anything. Even if the “activity” is pressing the 30 second button on the microwave for a basic hot chocolate.

Don’t underestimate the power of building anticipation around simple joys! To me that’s really what
holiday magic boils down to.

I am going to digress really quickly to the one year I was beginning to question Santa. I was probably 9. Our big gift that year was our first family computer, and since it “wouldn’t fit in the sleigh” it was set up for us one day about a week prior while we were in school.

Honestly, you’d think coming home to the coveted giant desktop computer was the magic, but actually in my memory what stands out more to me is that Santa had used his magic to transform our
bedrooms….in other words clean them!

I have no idea why my mom thought to do this, probably because she had taken a longer lunch break or even taken off work that afternoon….I imagine she did what I do with spare moments and started
cleaning up. Anyway, she ultimately worked the clean bedrooms into the Santa note.

When I came home and saw how perfect my room was as well as his note about having cleaned up for us  I was SOLD. I knew her average lunch break wouldn’t have given her enough time to pull off this cleaning spree and there was simply no other explanation.

I was in awe. Again, it wasn’t even the computer that did this. It was how the seemingly mundane act of cleaning up a room had been spun into magic for me. Don’t you know I called up my other 9 year old
friends to dish all this evidence and I was back on track to believing.

This is always a reminder to me that the little things are where it’s at!

The best for last! Mix in some ways to spread Christmas cheer so this calendar isn’t all “me me me”. Even at a young age kids can and should learn about giving to others and the real reason for the season.

This category can be so simple too, and it does not have to be efforts that break the bank. I’m planning things such as: deliver cookies to a neighbor, put some extra quarters in the Aldi carts, chose some of
our own toys to donate, even pick up litter in the park!

Also, look at your calendar while designating. Let’s be realistic–I’m never going to be in the mood to bake cookies from scratch and go deliver them to a neighbor all on a Monday night. So just make
the calendar work for you and remember you can always rearrange as you go if plans change.

So there you have it: How I kept the advent calendar from feeling overwhelming with this new “formula.”

One part out of the house events, one part at home magic, and one part spreading Christmas cheer.

Here is our full list in case you are looking for any ideas!