In our house, the little elves bring a special gift on December 1st. They creep through their elf door downstairs and place the gift in front of the door, along with a helping of fairy dust. Or perhaps it’s elf dust.
Let the Christmas count down begin! What special activities do you do to mark the beginning of December? Got an advent calendar? For those of you who haven’t yet gone out to the store to buy the chocolate variety, here are a few ideas that you can make with your preschooler today!
The simplest calendar is a paper chain. Get red, white, green, and silver paper, and cut it into rectangles. Then add numbers with a permanent marker. Add lengths of scrapbooking paper with interesting patters, too. Your preschooler can decorate the links with glitter and can even draw the numbers on the calendar. Over the days of advent, create the paper chain. In our house, this type of calendar works well with little characters that make a winter scene. As we put on the chain links, we take one winter creature out of a bag and add it to our winter scene on the mantelpiece.
If you have a lot of old Christmas cards and a rectangle of corrugated cardboard, you can make a card calendar. Cut the Christmas cards into mini cards using fancy craft scissors or pinking shears. Then add a number to the inside. Decorate the cardboard with a plain red, green, silver or gold background, then glue the cards onto the cardboard in order, one to twenty-four. Each day, open up a new card. Children can also create special paper surprises to glue or tape inside the cards.
Got a rock hound? Go out and find twenty-four smooth rocks. If your house is like ours, you may even have a little rock collection in a corner somewhere, and if you bribe your preschooler, you might be able to use these. Draw a number on the top of the rock. Cut out pictures from Christmas catalogues and cards and glue one onto the bottom of each rock. Use the rocks to make a winter scene.
Have you ever made an advent calendar with your preschooler? What have you made?