The kiddos and I will be starting our traditional advent activities this Thursday, December 1st. I'm excited for everything I have planned, but I'm just not feeling so festive because we have no snow! All the snow in the photo from yesterday's post has melted--it lasted only about two days.
During the three years I lived in Georgia and the five years I lived in California, I became very accustomed to holidays with no snow. It was always a tad bit weird to me, having grown up in Michigan, but I got used to it. We're approaching winter number four in Montreal, and it's now nearly impossible for me to envision the holidays here with no snow. Is this global warming? Just a fluke thing? Normal weather fluctuations? I don't know, but I want some ground coverage!
But alas, snow or no snow, the time has come for trees and gingerbread men and all sorts of seasonal goodness.
If you celebrate advent, what sorts of things do you have planned? I still have a couple of holes in my planning calendar and need ideas.
16 comments:
I'd like to start some advent traditions with our little one this year.
Some ideas I've thought of are:
-go for a walk to look at Christmas lights
-go tobogganing
-read a winter/Christmas story
-bake cookies
...and that's about it! lol. I'd love if you would share all of your ideas here. :)
Hasn't the weather been funny this year?
I'm hoping to do a bunch of advent activities for the first time this year! The kids are finally old enough to ALL participate this year! One thing I'm thinking of making are these adorable felt Christmas trees:
http://etadventures.blogspot.com/2011/11/adorable-felt-christmas-trees.html
Hee, I get MY ideas from YOU!! Although there is a holiday stroll through our little downtown that we try to do each year, and one in the neighboring town that takes place in the evening with carolers and a hayride through town. Surely MTL must have something like that?
While I'm throwing out ideas, can I make a suggestion for your blog tags? It would be super convenient if you broke down some of your craftier posts by season. Or at least it would help lazy people like me find fun winter ideas without depressing myself with the summer themes :)
-Jill
I'm sure you'll have snow soon--we actually have some already (and since we got our tree very early--today--it's a good thing!). For advent, I wrap up all our christmas books and open/read one per day. Otherwise, we don't do much. But we do other things that you could fit in--make cookies (that could be a two-day project: make dough on one day and roll/cut out the next), make birdseed ornaments and decorate a tree outside, go for a solstice hike (build a fire and sometimes eat a dinner picnic outside), go to the town tree lighting ceremony, make gifts, make snow ice cream, make latkes and play dreidle, make Lucia buns on the 13th, put out shoes for St. Nicholas day on the 6th.
We went greens-gathering yesterday, without coats, which I thought strange enough, but then we had to shed our sweaters! It's just wrong!!
I finally made an Advent calendar this year, and I'm so excited to use it. Like you, I filled it with many activities we'd have done anyway. But talking about things-we'd-do-anyway with my 2-year-old, when I described the day we'd set up the tree and put the lights on (all we have time for after work; ornaments come on another day), and said we'd eat popcorn and cider for dinner while we did it (don't have time for an activity and actual cooking), she said "I LOVE that day!" and asked me to tell about it again and again. I think ritualizing things makes them special, rather than just quickly accomplishing them as a to-do-list item.
I think I'll post the activities I'm including in mine; I'll let you know when I do.
I knew you guys would have great ideas! Thank you!
Allison--a friend of mine suggested a Christmas lights walk last week, and I think I will include that this year. Maybe with something fun to carry, like bells?
MaryAnne--the weather is seriously freaking me out. The felt trees are a cute idea. We've been really into felt lately.
Jill--I think the equivalent to the hayride would probably be taking a horse-drawn carriage through the old port. I'd bet that during Christmas time it's the most lovely thing in the world, but it's expensive! Maybe when the girls are bigger. And I love your seasonal blog tag idea. I'm mulling over the logistics right now :).
Andrea--snow ice cream--that's a great one! If we don't do it for advent, I think we will do it later in the winter. Have you ever made it? I don't know how, but I assume it's pretty self-explanatory.
Lise--I couldn't agree more with this statement: "I think ritualizing things makes them special, rather than just quickly accomplishing them as a to-do-list item." This is totally true. I never fully understood the power of ritual and tradition until having children. It's amazing. And I'd love to hear all the ideas you come up with!
Last year we kept it simple with chocolate advent calendars (last minute idea lol) but this year I'd like to do more exciting and beneficial activities so we're adding stuff like putting up the christmas tree, wrapping gifts, Christmas dinner prep, etc. Our new community has a lot planned for the holidays so we will fill up our calendar with local activities as well.I want to add atleast 5 traditional activities that my children could pass on to their youngins but...no clue as to what those activities are going to be yet.
I love the idea of a Christmas Light walk with bells!
We make snowflakes (just from white paper), sprinkle them with glitter and hang them in the windows. That could help with your snow issue, too! :)
One new thing I'm going to do with my girls this year is make homemade gingerbread ornaments to hang on the tree. Yummy!
Lesley
Dia--I love the idea of including preparing Christmas dinner on the advent calendar! My children and I make homemade cinnamon rolls every Christmas Eve (all but the baking part--we put them in the oven Christmas morning), but I completely neglected to put that on the advent calendar. Thanks for the suggestion. As far as adding new traditions, what I found was that the first time I made an "activity" advent calendar, it was a lot of work. However, because we've been doing it for a few years now, it's becoming somewhat automatic because so many of the things are now established as traditions.
Lesley--I was going to save snowflake-making until the dreary later winter months, but you're right--we may have to make them now! I looked at the weather report last night, and there was no snow in the forecast for the next ten days. Making gingerbread ornaments sounds fun. Do you use a salt dough recipe with molasses added for color, or is it regular gingerbread?
We use an edible gingerbread recipe so we can sample our cute creations! :)
Lesley
Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog about Lucy (I think so, too!)
I lived in my house for 11 years before I figured out that there was a little patch of woods at the end of my block, along the river, that is city-owned and fine for us to explore. I had no idea! For years we'd gone to gather greens on the country property of some friends of a friend. You might be surprised what's out there. :-)
All right, super-long-winded Advent-calendar post here: http://inthepurplehouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/long-awaited-advent-calendar.html. :-)
Can't wait to see what you have planned! I am not very creative though the Littles got a cute devotional/ advent calendar and the Bigs got one too that includes crafty things! I'm hoping that we can do some things special for the season. I am sad to be missing all of the advent services at church because of Al's dance classes... :-(
Lise--you've got some great ideas on your calendar, and the one you made is so beautiful! I'll keep it in mind as inspiration for the year that I finally get around to making a nice one.
Laura--fun! Where did you find one with crafty things?
I know! I'm freaking out a bit over this weather. Last year at this time we had snow. LOTS of snow. What's going on?
Tradition I'm starting/keeping are baking and ornament decorating!
Bunmi, this is a late response, but if you see this--what kind of ornaments did you make?
Post a Comment