ADVENT CALENDAR 2021
- Destiny Hooper
- Nov 19, 2021
- 4 min read
As a kid, we always had certain Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions. Putting the Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving night, making Christmas cookies together as a family, new pajamas on Christmas Eve...and every tradition that we had, I still love to this day. But, there's one tradition that always stood out to me, that was my absolute favorite. That was the tradition of the advent calendar.
My grandparents, on my dad's side, lived in Canada, which meant we didn't get to see them too often. So, in an effort to still have that connection during the holidays, my grandma (we call her Memere, that's grandma in French) would always send us a big box of presents. One for every day leading up to Christmas. Every night, my sister and I would go to the box and pick one present to open, then we would call my grandparents and tell them what we got! It's a memory I've always cherished.
Of course, that's every kid's dream, is to open a present every single day! I mean, how could you NOT love that? haha But now as an adult (and a parent), I see it from the other side. From my Memere and Pepere's side. Hearing/seeing the joy and making those magical memories. So, that's why I've decided to carry on this special tradition now, with Dax!
This is my very first Christmas as a mother and I have been OVER THE MOON excited to begin all of these fun festivities with my little man. So excited, in fact, that I started shopping at the beginning of October, as soon as we returned from our Gatlinburg trip! But, my excitement has paid off, because now I get to share all of my fun finds with you and hopefully give you some ideas for your own gifts this year!
THE CALENDAR \\
To start, I bought this gorgeous calendar from Kikakids. You can personalize it, if you so choose, and it also comes with pre-made activity cards if you aren't interested in making your own.
I am so impressed with the quality and durability of this calendar. It's extremely well made and it looks exactly like the pictures in the listing.
THE ACTIVITIES \\
In an effort to bring the most connection to this tradition, I wanted to make sure that the calendar wasn't just filled with items. I wanted there to be an equal amount of gifts, as well as bonding experiences and even holiday adventures!
So, I created a holiday bucket list of sorts. I hopped on Canva, found a cozy, festive font, typed up my list of activities and printed them on some heavy cardstock, to cut out and add to the calendar.
Some of my activities don't have a physical gift form, so I bought a pack of fillable Christmas ornaments, some fake snow and confetti and I will add the activity label to the ornament for him to pull out that day.
Being that he's not even a year old yet, my activities are rather limited this year, but they're only going to get better as the years go on! I can't wait to do things like make homemade hot cocoa, decorate a gingerbread house, make DIY ornaments, etc. But for this year, activities like winter sensory bins and holiday baths, will do.
I bought a couple of bubble bars from Lush and some Crayola Bath Dropz to create a fun bathtime experience on a couple of nights. Here are the bubble bars that I bought
I found a few fun, easy sensory activities on Pinterest! I wanted to make sure that anything that he was physically putting in his hands, was edible, so be aware of that as well if you're doing this with your little ones!
I also found this ADORABLE reusable, personalized felt envelope for his letters to Santa every year. That's one of our activities and I bought a printable letter to Santa template off of Etsy for super cheap.
GIFTS AND TOYS \\
This age is a bit tricky to find toys for because they want to put EVERYTHING in their mouth. haha but luckily, the main focus of my advent isn't on gifts. I mainly want it to include books and experiences, so I only purchased a few small toys for his age range (6-18months).
Some other items that I purchased for experience related activities, are:
MINI CHRISTMAS TREE (to decorate his room)
MINI WOODEN CHRISTMAS VILLAGE SET (to decorate his room, found at Target dollar spot- couldn't find link)
BOOKS \\
This was a main focus of the advent. He absolutely loves to read and we've really fostered that desire and environment from day one, so I knew I wanted to include some fun holiday books for him to explore!
While the majority of these books came from HomeGoods, I want to mention that I recently discovered Usborne Books & More (and became a consultant)! They are a division of the EDC (Educational Development Corporation) and they sell some incredible engaging and educational books for kids. Read about my favorite UBAM holiday books here, SHOP my favorites here!
If I had found them earlier, I would have bought from them instead of HomeGoods, hands down! BUT, here is my list of books that I found at local stores:
WRAP UP \\
And that's it! I also bought some pretty ribbon and string from my local craft store to tie the books and gifts that don't fit in the pockets, to the calendar. If you want my editable calendar, click here! Canva is free to use (though some features require the paid version), so you can create an account and edit this template to your liking!
I hope you enjoyed this look into our 2021 advent calendar and Happy Holidays!
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