s a m t s i r h C y Eas s d i K r o f Crafts
BY JESS WEISCHEDEL
Family Activities Advent Calendar Materials: A large empty frame, twine, envelopes, paper, scissors, paper clips or mini clothespins, a black marker, and decorative items such as washi tape, stickers, markers, etc., and some holiday flare for your frame. (If using larger envelopes, a stapler will work to close the middle portions after cutting.) There are several options for creating advent calendars, but this one will focus on using a frame. Any frame will do if it fits the 25 days you create for your calendar. The size of your frame will depend on the size of your envelopes. You can also come up with other ways to hold the activity for each day, such as small gift bags, a shoe organizer, or a cupcake tin. If you don’t have a frame that works well, you may also come up with alternative ways to display your calendar, such as using garland or a mini tree to hang your envelopes. Gather 25 envelopes and estimate what size you need each day to be for them all to fit in your frame. The frame in this example fits 5 rows of 5 envelopes perfectly if the envelopes were cut in half and roughly the same size. Next, write the numbers 1 through 25 on each envelope. Talk to your kids about what kind of activities they look forward to doing as a family in December, leading up to Christmas day. Gather their ideas with some of your own, and write one activity on individual pieces of paper, until you have 25 activities.
56 friends & family |
FOR KIDS
Place your activities into each numbered envelope. You may want to look at the calendar and decide which activities are more realistic for weekdays and weekends, and as the days get closer to Christmas eve and Christmas day. For example, if you bake cookies for Santa Claus you might want to do this on Christmas eve, so they are nice and fresh for when he visits that night. If you have a sledding adventure, a weekend day might work best for that activity instead of a school or work day. Let your kids decorate the envelopes with washi tape, stickers, or markers. As they decorate, prepare the frame by tying twine across in however many rows you need to fit all your envelopes. Once they are decorated, carefully use paper clips or mini clothespins to hang your envelopes across your rows of twine. If you need to hang them sideways to fit all of them, go ahead. This is a flexible craft with creativity encouraged. Add some holiday flare to your frame and display before December 1st, so your family can open the first envelope on the first day of the month.
