Tag: KidsAdvent

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Advent Day 24 – Hot Chocolate and Luminary Night Walk

It’s the day before Christmas – Merry Christmas Eve! We are all still working on getting healthy here and have a fairly low-key day planned.

This morning the elf put a star on the top of the tree. I thought the kids would find this funny. They keep asking me where the tree topper star is, and the truth is – I have no idea. It’s deep in a box somewhere and I tried to find it, but there is only so much time I’m going to dedicate to finding a tree ornament. So my husband moved one of the existing start ornaments to the top of the tree with the elf. It will work for this year.

elf on the shelf tree topper

Tonight the grandparents will come over, we will make hot chocolate and go outside for a walk around the neighbourhood. Everyone in the neighbourhood will light candles and place them in white paper bags outside their houses. The community all comes out to walk around and enjoy the lights. It’s a beautiful, peaceful way to celebrate Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!

Luminary night walk
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Advent Day 23 – Look at Christmas Lights

It’s the weekend before Christmas and we are all struggling to stay healthy. We’re trying to make it along the final stretch with our Christmas Spirit in tact.

I was feeling terrible last night so I went with a very simple elf set-up: the elf sitting on Santa’s knee for a little pre-Christmas chat. Next year I will definitely have a few of these simple ideas in my back pocket, just in case.

Maileg pixy and Maileg Santa

Today’s activity was to go to the grandparents for Christmas dinner and then all go to a drive-through Christmas lights show. It was my first time going to see this kind of event and it was fantastic! We went to the Magic of Lights in Ottawa and there was about a 20 minute line up to get through the gate and then the lights drive took about 20-40 minutes. A perfect activity for a drizzly night with kids not feeling their best.

barbie christmas lights
drive thru Christmas lights
Magic of Lights Ottawa
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Advent Day 22 – Make Reindeer Food

My son loves Blippi, so when I saw a little elf Blippi costume for sale at a second-hand toy shop (Wonder + Kind), I had to get it. The elf dressed as Blippi made his own mini indoor play gym to enjoy. My son thought it was hilarious.

elf on the shelf Blippi

Day 22’s activity is to make some reindeer food. In keeping with the reindeer theme, 2 Schleich reindeer (special editions 2022 and 2023) were gifts in the Maileg Santa Advent Calendar.

We’ve never made reindeer food before, but I always thought it looked like a cute, sensory idea for the kids. I didn’t buy anything special. I knew I had rolled oats in the cupboard and I just scrounged around for anything else Christmas-y in the baking cupboard. I found some green sugar sprinkles and some old candy canes that I crushed up. Hopefully none of the ingredients are too offensive to our wildlife.

reindeer food ingredients

I gave the kids small spoons to scoop the ingredients into their bowls. It’s a Friday afternoon after a very busy week and I wasn’t feeling overly enthusiastic about doing an activity, but I was pleasantly surprised. The whole activity took 5 minutes, max. It was easy, fairly mess free and the kids enjoyed it. I stored the reindeer food in ziplock bags until the kids can sprinkle it outside on Christmas Eve.

Reindeer food mix
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Advent Day 21 – Christmas Sensory Play

It’s time for a Christmas sensory activity today. We have been so busy with Christmas outings and activities we haven’t done a lot of sensory play this month.

The table was all set up and ready to go this morning, so the kids could start playing as soon as they came downstairs.

Christmas sensory flisat play
Homemade sensory mix, green tree board from Birch and Bark Natural Wood, tree plate from The Creative Mix Shop, gem block light bulbs from Highway to Railway, acrylic light bulbs and ornaments from Eye Spy Club, bells from Dollarama

I didn’t have the budget for a fancy Christmas sensory mix this year, so I made one using food dye, acrylic paint, pasta and chick peas. See here for more information on how I made it.

The elf was also waiting with his own tiny sensory set-up.

elf on the shelf sensory table
Mini sensory table from Eye Spy Club

Both kids had a wonderful time tinkering with this set up today. We will leave it out for a few more days or until too much of the sensory mix ends up on the floor.

sensory play christmas tree
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Advent Day 20 – Christmas Cheer Bath

Today’s activity is also a gift to my husband and I. Tonight the kids are going to have a Christmas Cheer Bath. Anything that gets the kids excited about going upstairs and getting in the bath at the end of the day is a win for us. Our kids usually love being in the bath, but never want to get in it. A new and exciting bath surprise helps make the transition easier. With emotions running high the week before Christmas, we could use a little “easier” tonight.

The elf is is also getting into a Christmas spa mood and will be waiting for the kids in the bathroom tonight.

Elf on the shelf Christmas cheer bath

The Christmas Cheer bath will include something new we’re trying: Crackle Play Colours (purchased from Sewing Seeds play). It’s a package you empty into the bath and it’s supposed to have a variety of colours and make crackling sounds. There will also be some plastic light bulbs to scoop water and light sticks and light pucks to add a little extra excitement. It looks like lots of fun.

Christmas sensory bath
Christmas cheer bath
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Advent Day 19 – Christmas Music Party

We had a dance party this morning with some new Christmas music. The elf was all ready for a party in the morning and the gift in the Maileg Santa Advent Calendar was a new yoto card: Disney Junior Holiday Party! The Album.

The party started off a little rough, with lots of fighting over who the new yoto card belongs to, but thankfully became more cheery after some breakfast. The kids enjoyed the new music card and wanted to listen to it on repeat this morning. I think it will add some fun Christmas spirit to the house this week.

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Advent Day 18 – Have a Snowball Fight

Thank you to my December self for choosing a simple activity for Monday morning, on the week before Christmas.

The elf arrived in the morning with a basket of snowballs and a sign challenging them to a snowball fight.

elf on the shelf snowball fight
Wooden sign from Eye Spy Club, snowballs from Dollarama

When my kids were a little younger, I used to stuff a few of these snowballs in their stockings to help fill them up. As a result, we’ve amassed a small collection. Just enough so the kids could burn off a bit of energy this morning with a snowball fight.

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Advent Day 17 – Bake Christmas Cookies

After a very long day yesterday, we are happy to spend this Sunday at home. Today’s activity is to bake some Christmas cookies. I intentionally planned to bake on a weekend so we would have lots of time to make a mess and then clean up after. The luxury of extra times makes the mess less stressful for me.

The elf kicked things off with some baking themed mischief this morning.

elf with blender ready to bake cookies

I definitely could have made this scene more elaborate, but after a full day of solo parenting yesterday (my husband was super sick), this was all I could muster last night.

We made some easy shortbread cookies with a recipe passed down to me from my mom’s friend (see below if you’re interested in the recipe). The kids had fun cutting out the shapes and trying to get them onto the pan. My 3 year old participated for about 5 minutes and my 5 year old for 10 minutes, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was a fairly quick activity. I think sticking with an easy recipe was a good choice for us. We can get more fancy as the kids get older and have more experience with baking.

kids making Christmas Cookies
kids cutting out cookies
Baking Christmas cookies in Halloween pajamas.
Christmas shortbread cookies
Shortbread ready to go in the oven

Recipe for Janet’s Shortbread

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup berry sugar

Combine and cream butter and sugar. Add 2 cups of flour and mix. Add remaining 1/2 cup of flour only to the point needed (I usually only use 1.5 tbsp).

Roll out 1/4″ and cut out. Place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes (or until slightly brown).

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Advent Day 16 – Movie at Grandma and Grandpa’s

It’s the weekend and that means we have out-of-the-house activities to do today. The kids have their last horseback riding lesson of the year in the morning and, in the afternoon, they will be going to their grandparents’ condo for a festive movie and treats in the building’s movie theatre.

The elf was watching his watching his own movie in the dollhouse this morning and even managed to find some popcorn. My daughter thought this was hilarious.

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Advent Day 15 – Make a Gingerbread House

It’s Gingerbread Day! I’ve been looking forward to this one. My daughter has been talking about making a gingerbread house since the start of December. We will make our real gingerbread house tonight after school, but to help get us in the gingerbread mood (in a less messy way), I had a special surprise for the kids this morning. I made some handmade gingerbread blocks. I think they turned out so adorable, so I was really excited for the kids to discover them this morning.

If you’re interested in how I made them, you can read about it here.

The elf was hanging out with the new blocks, plus a few other handmade goodies (not by me) that I just received from the second-hand toy store Wonder + Kind (Little Step Co. stackers and Island Peg Doll pegs and houses).

Let the building begin!