help! I need more activities for my advent calendar

Here are the activities I used last year (some with added links to help you out) …

• decorate the Christmas tree
• make a Christmas milkshake
• read a Christmas book
• write a letter to Santa – if you are in Australia here are the details for posting your letter
• watch a Christmas movie
• go to Carols by Candlelight
• make the house smell like Christmas  - try this Gumnut potpourri
• go and see Santa
• make your own flavour of ice-cream
• buy a gift for a child in need and put it under the wishing tree
• buy a new Christmas decoration (another family tradition of ours - to buy a decoration for each child each year, they will take these when they leave home)
• start a family puzzle
• make a Christmas CD/find some new Christmas music
• make some Christmas decorations – try some of the ideas in the sharing Christmas decorations roundup
• have a special breakfast (I’m thinking Christmas-shape pancakes)
• make Christmas treats (biscuits, chocolate balls or similar)
• take a drive to see Christmas lights
• wrap presents
• look under your pillow for a Christmas treat
• have a slideshow of 2010 photos
• take a family Christmas photo
• put out milk and biscuits for Santa
• go to playgroup Christmas party
• make gift tags/cards – try some of the ideas in the sharing Christmas – cards, gifts and wrapping roundup

And I have some new ideas for our advent activities this year …

• take silly Christmas photos
• hunt for signs of the season (more about this in a post soon)
• play Christmas games – such as the Christmas dice game I made last year or some of these games at Activity Village
• track Santa online on Christmas Eve at Norad tracks Santa

And a friend has suggested some of the activities that will be on her advent activity list (that is her lovely countdown calendar in the picture at the top of this post)

• making a Christmas tree and decorating it
• marshmallow Christmas puddings (with chocolate, jaffas and mint leaves)
• making paper cranes
• making a Christmas collage from magazine clippings
• have a treasure hunt (with picture clues and gold chocolate coins as the treasure)