Countdown to Christmas – Our Book and Activity Advent Calendar

Growing up we always had those cardboard advent calendars with the little pieces of chocolate in them that helped us countdown to Christmas. We loved them! And loved the thrill of getting closer and closer to the big day.

Last year, when Emma had just turned 2, I scoured Pinterest for other countdown ideas. I loved the ones with activities like baking cookies, volunteering, watching Christmas movies, etc., but some seemed a little too old for our kiddo and a lot to do with work and a short evening window during the week.

At some point I stumbled upon the idea of opening a new book each night, which I loved, as we have a slight book “problem ” in our house. I went on Amazon and found a great deal on books, but wasn’t quite ready to spend the money for 24 of them! I had told my mom about the idea and she wanted to help, so we each bought 6 and I decided to have Emma open up one book on each even day of December leading up to Christmas Eve.

It was a huge success! And now this year I have 12 books to use again! I’m running slightly behind as it is already the 4th, but I love being able to reuse this idea for quite awhile since most of the books will work for many years. This year I am going to do some of the activity cards on the odd days and just plan the bigger events for weekends. I love the suggestions from the Mama.Papa.Bubba blog and the printable cards make it that much easier!