Advent Activities

• Make candles and share the light of Christ.
• Visit or perform your very own living nativity.
• Do small, kind deeds for random strangers.
• Buy groceries for a local charity.
• Volunteer at a local homeless shelter
• Ring bells for the Salvation Army.
• Make a gift basket for a needy family.
• Watch A Nativity Story.
• Instead of the typical Elf on a Shelf use a wise man instead who is making his way back to the manger to report on how well the children are behaving.
• Make your Christmas cards into framed art work
• Read TheVelveteen Rabbit, A Christmas Carol or The Gift of the Magi.
• Make a felt gingerbread garland.
• Watch a Christmas movie online. Thanks to Hannah for sharing.
• Have a pajama party.
• Make a paper ring garland.
• String popcorn and cranberries for the house or for the birds.
• Build a snowman.
• Make a gingerbread house.
• Have a dance party.
• Go ice skating or sledding.
• Make wax dipped pinecone ornaments 
• Be a secret santa to your friends and neighbors.
• Make an edible angel.
• Make some Santa trail mix for that winter hike or to use while shopping.
• Camp out by the Christmas tree.
• Have a Christmas dance party of your very own.
• Make sugar plum fairies dance.
• Decorate an outside tree for the birds in your neighborhood.
• Do a craft together.
• Play a Christmas game.
• Read some Christmas poems together or write your own.
• Track Santa online or on Facebook.
• Make paper snowflakes or pasta snowflakes together or make a virtual snowflake online.
• Make snow together using one of the science kits found in craft or educational stores. Also right now Target has these kits for $2.99 in the Christmas area.
• Tired of boring old hot chocolate. Give the kids (and parents) a special treat; use cookies and cream candy bars to make your hot chocolate. Just heat milk, a little bit of sugar and the candy bars. Yum!
• Do a Christmas puzzle together or extend it over the whole season.
• Make rolls as a family for your Christmas dinner or as a nice accompaniment to a winter soup
• Check out all the things to do on the Locals page or go to your cities website to find out what is happening nearby.
• Watch one of the many Christmas movies together such as a Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Its a Wonderful Life or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. This can be repeated during the season along with a snack and the family to make for a great Christmas memory.
• Go looking at Christmas lights in your p.j.s and don't forget to bring along some hot cocoa and the Christmas music. For a really neat local tradition visit the Johnson Families Christmas light display. 
• Make cookies together as a family or go the extra mile and take them to someone in need of some love.
• Go on a winter hike, but make sure to dress warmly and keep something warm in the car for afterwards. Hand warmers are a nice touch.
• Have a Christmas bathtub party. This is especially good for the little ones, but moms & dads might enjoy it also. First get some Christmas soap and bubbles, then light a Christmas scented candle and grab yourself a Christmas book to make for some relaxing time. Especially if its just mom's time alone for a little bit.Are you might want to turn up the Christmas music and make some Santa beards out of bubbles?  
• Go see a Christmas play such as "The Nutcracker".
• Make birthday cards for Jesus and use these to decorate the house. Our family puts them on the windows on Christmas Eve. Go a step further and have a party complete with balloons. Don't forget to awake Christmas morning and sing Happy Birthday first thing.
• Make applesauce ornaments or some other kind of ornament then share them with family and friends. Or share them with strangers that you meet while at shopping and always add a God bless you to the gift.
• Celebrate a new tradition this year and add to your understanding of different cultures by checking out how others celebrate Christmas around the world.
• Have a Christmas Karaoke  party.
• Find 101 Things To Do
• Ask a family member to read Luke 1:26—31 & 38 from the Bible with you. Find out what the Angel of the Lord told Mary the mother of Christ.
• Write a note to your teacher today thanking him or her for teaching you.
• Make a list of all the important people in your life. Choose one and write him or her a note explaining how much he or she means to you.
• Say a special prayer today for all those you love. Pray for each one by name.
• Say a prayer for peace between the leaders of all the countries of the world. Also, pray for the hungry
• Read Matthew 5:3—10, the Beatitudes. Talk about their meanings.
• Read Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule. Talk about what can you do to practice the Golden Rule today?
• Read Mark 12:41—44. Ask your family to name gifts that don’t cost money but that make them happy.
• Make playdough Christmas ornaments