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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My husband received some adorable window gels for the kids from a co-worker last Christmas, but didn’t bring them home until well after Christmas. So, I put them away and brought them out this year for Day 5. Pixy was waiting at the window with the fun window gels when the kids came downstairs in the morning. The kids loved that the gels were personalized with their names and were entertained putting all the letters and figures up on the windows.
The Santa advent calendar has a pocket for Day 5, so I put two of the adorable Maileg reindeer in for an extra little gift. An easy Day 5.
The first of December started off big with our Christmas Chalet play scene. We got our ski chalet dollhouse last December and the kids loved playing with it up until Christmas. They’ve been asking when it will make an appearance again this year. I bring it out on the first day of the month so we can get lots of play with it before Christmas. The house itself was a thrifted $25 Marketplace find that I fixed up with a bit of paint and “wallpaper” (wrapping paper). A few things are new, but many parts of the set up are toys we already had and have been rotated out of play for a while, so they will seem new to the kids. The whole scene is propped up on our Nugget couch pieces, with some white fabric and snow blankets on top.
Both my kids love the tiny details and, thank goodness, they are finally at ages (3.5 and 5.5) when I don’t have to worry about them putting things in their mouths. This year, I added a bunch of tiny extras for them to discover and to compliment their tiny play scenes.
Of course, it’s not a ski chalet without a ski hill. My 5.5 year old daughter loves to ski and my 3.5 year old son will be starting this year (fingers crossed). We all love toys that allow re-enacting things from our real life. The basket “ski lift” (from Kraul) was a Christmas gift for my daughter last year. The kids have loved using it to carry their mice and other treasures up the hill. And when they get to the top, what could be more fun than a little Santa and Mrs. Claus village? My daughter already made the Michaels Santa’s Workshop this year and I thought it would be a fun addition to the North Pole.
When the mouse family needs a change from skiing, they can put on their skates and try out the skating rink. The rink is a DIY my daughter and I made last year of cardboard, paint, glitter and cotton balls.
And the gift for today? The Mom and Dad Winter Mice from Maileg, complete with their own skis. I think the kids have had as much fun playing with it as I had creating it.
And just to prove how much kids enjoyed this little scene, here’s a proof-of-play photo.
The highlight for my daughter has been using tiny loose parts in jars to “cook” in the kitchen. I had not anticipated the jars being opened and dumped out, but I took a deep breath and reminded myself that the mess is worth their delight. Happy first day of advent.
Pixy Update
The pixy arrived sitting on top of the kids store-bought advent calendars. With all the excitement this morning, they didn’t seem to notice the pixy much. I’m going to continue to play it low-key. I think it will make it more exciting for the kids when they realize he moves around.
I have a lot of fun with advent in December, which is probably why it’s a bit over the top. My husband smiles and shakes his head, but the kids love it and I do too. I don’t dare share my craziness with other mom’s I know, so I’m posting it here.
I like our advent to be a mixture of gifts and activities. I started this last year and although it’s more work to organize it before December 1st, I found that having the month planned out in advance helped me to relax and enjoy the Christmas festivities more. When will we make a gingerbread house? Are we going to look at Christmas Lights? When will we see Santa? I don’t need to worry about organizing, booking and making sure I don’t miss any of our Christmas traditions because it’s all planned. Of course, my kids also love a little gift, so this year I’ve included a few activity-related gifts with our advent and also got them pre-packaged advents with small gifts in them.
Our Santa Pixy Advent calendar is from MailegThe Build a Bracelet Jewelry Advent Calendar is from Great Pretenders (purchased from the small shop Sewing Seeds Play) and the Thomas the Train Minis Calendar is from Amazon
I’m also planning to soft launch some pixy antics in our home this year. It will be our version of Elf on the Shelf – the pixy may get up to some mischief, but there will be no reporting back to Santa on behaviour and no rules about touching the pixy. I thought the “no touching” Elf on the Shelf rule would be nearly impossible to enforce with my kids. Maileg also released the adorable Long Legged Pixy this year, so i thought it would be a good chance to try out some pixy fun. We will see how it goes. I don’t want to commit to anything that becomes too stressful or burdensome so I’m giving it a test run this year. The pixy will just show up one the first day of advent and move around each day. Can I keep up with the pixy? Stay tuned…
Oops, I almost forgot. I have one more advent related activity for the kids. A book advent. We have been collecting Christmas books for a few years and we finally have enough to try the book advent. There are only 2 to 3 new ones I collected throughout the year. The rest we already had. I wrapped them all individually in brown paper and scrap packing paper I found around the house and put them all in a crate at the top of our stairs. There are no numbers on the books. I thought the kids could pick out one each night as they head upstairs for bath. My kids tend to get fixated on one book and read it over and over. I know this is developmental and completely normal, but sometimes mom and dad want to read a different book. I thought the book advent would be a great way to encourage the kids to read all our Christmas books this year. It’s also a great set-it and forget-it activity for me.
So that’s it, our advent fun for this year: an activity advent, two store bought advents, pixy antics and a book advent. We are all in for a festive December.
