Our 2015 Advent Calendar

This year as Christmas stuff crept into the stores, I was reminded (thanks to the girls) about last years advent calendars a $4 Aldi special. They were begging to have another one again this year. I can't blame them as there aren't too many children who don't like eating chocolate especially before breakfast!

After a few night researching ideas I opted to make one. The one that caught my eye was a simple assortment of red envelopes arranged in the shape of a Christmas Tree (credit to Martha Stewart for the idea).

So the next task was to brainstorm ideas. The following are the ones which made the cut:

Chocolate

Lets write a letter to Santa

Lets read the book 'Letters from Father Christmas' by J.R.R Tolkien

Lets make a Xmas Playlist

Let buy a gift for someone with our saved pocket money.

Let's make paper chains & snowflakes

Lets go to the movies

Lip Balm

Xmas Jokes

Xmas ornament

Lets watch the Polar Express 

$5

Lets bake Reindeer cookies

Let have a Lunch Order today

Seeds

Lets go to Big Splash

Chocolate

Lets listen to Twas night before christmas

Lets have an extra screen time

Lets decorate a Tote bag for our Nanas

Bath bombs

Let have Fish’n’chips for dinner

Homemade Christmas activity booklet for car trip

Hairbands

Note to the girls on Christmas Day

Now not all of these would fit into the envelopes. I solved this problem three ways -  I created a secret Christmas code which they had to crack to find where the treasure was; I took a photo and created a jigsaw and finally just cut up the letters so the girls had to figure out the word representing the hiding spot.

The results - well I think they loved it. Katy opened all the odd numbers and Ella did the even ones. We read Letters to Father Christmas each night as our bedtime story. It was quite a cute little book.

The playlist was a hit and the girls loved to sing along with Ella's favourite being Last Christmas by Wham!!

We bought a goat from Oxfam for a family in Mozambique. We had so much fun cutting out snowflakes then decorating the windows. The Polar Express was a lovely movie to watch and we had a sleepover in the lounge room too! The reindeer cookies turned out pretty funny looking but yummy and we also made santa strawberries too! The Nanas loved their tote bags. We enjoyed listening to Twas the night before christmas. We've nearly used all the bath bombs. The activity booklet kept the girls busy on the drive up to Guthega and the girls loved their new button hairbands.

There are several voucher waiting to be cashed in - movies, big splash, extra screen time and we are yet to plant the seeds. On the upside there is still lots of school holidays left.....