One of my favorite family traditions is our homemade advent calendar. Before we even had children we started this tradition and it has proven to be a highlight of our season. I wanted to do something to focus on the season without spending the month obsessed about Santa or presents and I thought this might just do the trick.

Each year I change it up a bit with the activities we do, but I always start with these little brown boxes topped with mini bottle brush trees. Each day Jasper gets to open a tiny box and some days in addition to a little strip of paper with an activity written on it there is a little chocolate inside. I like to focus on three basic categories: fun, service and traditions.

Here are a few of the activities we hope to do this holiday season:

fun:

Listen to Christmas music (I have to laugh because Jasper has two favorites Michael Buble and Justin Bieber)
Christmas cards (I have gone back on forth on this, but I really like sending them out as a good excuse for a new family photo)
Make hot cocoa and watch a Christmas movie (The Polar Express and The Grinch are the only entire movies Jasper has ever seen and in the theater to boot!)
Homemade marshmallows (My friend made these for Jasper’s first birthday and I am OBSESSED!)
Drive around in jammies looking at Christmas lights (Jasper didn’t think it made sense to put jammies on to go outside, so we skipped that part)
Family photo in the snow (Sounds fun, right? I will let you know)
Make gifts for grandparents (My motto is: handmade is best, always and forever)
See lights downtown
Print out past years snow photos

service:

Deliver treats to neighbors (We love sharing the calories!)
Donate old clothes and toys to less fortunate children (People often do Spring cleaning, but the holidays are a good time to get rid of those items you no longer use to make room for the inevitable landslide of gifts your child will receive)
Write to missionaries (We have a couple missionaries serving from our congregation this year and there is nothing that gives me the warm fuzzies more than good ol’ fashion snail mail.)
Giving Tree (This tradition started after Asher passed away. We made it a point to buy an outfit for a little boy who would be Asher’s age and donate it. This year our sweet little Asher would be six!)

traditions:

Make Cookies (Any excuse to don an apron)
Cookie Decorating Party (We invite friends and throw sprinkles all around)
Pie Party (Everyone brings a pie, everyone goes home stuffed)
Sledding/Inner tubing at Snoqualmie Pass
Christmas Ships (A very fun and PNW thing to do and all the proceeds go to the Fund for the Needy)
Read the Christmas story out of the Bible (Growing up we would usually do this Christmas morning before we opened gifts. It was a good reminder of why we celebrate the season in the first place)