December is approaching fast and with that the advent calender panic comes closer:
Should it be one small gift each day or one each Sunday? What should it contain? Where can I find something cool (and not too expensive)? Should I just buy one of the pre-made ones?
There can be many questions and it can be a little overwhelming to find 24 small gifts that please both your child and your wallet.
But here is a little inspiration and suggestions, that I hope you can use, it’s a mix of big and smaller things, so it can be used for gifts for each day or just for the Sundays 🙂
- buy a beautiful jigsaw puzzle and divide it into 24 portions, so your child can assemble a bit of it each day. It’s most practical to place all of the unwrapped pieces in one place, so they don’t get lost. You can place them on a piece of cardboard or a wooden board, then it’s easy to move.
- read a fairytale each day, so you read 24 fairytales in total. It’s such a nice and quiet time to spend together. You can read some of the classics by H. C. Anderson or the Grimm brothers? Or go to the library and look for Christmas stories.
- packs with powder for making hot chocolate. Is there anything better than hot chocolate with whipped cream or marshmallows on a cold, dark winter’s day?
- play a boardgame together each day. It’s fun and super quality time (and you can drink hot chocolate)
- experiences, eg. go swimming or ice skating, walk in the forest or play on the playground (wrap the swimwear or a picture of the place you’re going)
- a movie & popcorn for a relaxed sunday
- a bake-Christmas-cookies day. Bake delicious cookies or other kinds of Christmas treats
- Christmas decoration day. Make Christmas decorations like paper hearts, stars and snowflakes and decorate the house. There are many ways to do it. Have you seen the idea with making the refrigerator into a snowman or wrap the front door as a huge Christmas present? (wrap scissors, glue and paper as a gift)
- let the kids make a Christmas decoration with candles, spruce branches, Christmas balls etc. for their own room. Use the candles with batteries, so it doesn’t catch fire. (you can wrap the candles as a gift)
I usually make a calender for Philomena, so she gets a present each Sunday. The first one is a chocolate calender, that she can enjoy each day. This year she’ll get a cool elf hat (that she wants), some play money (because she loves to play that she has shop) and a build-yourself-gingerbread-house box I found.
But please don’t tell her 😉
Philomena made the illustration 🙂