— by Lisa A. Beach
2 25 5
S Simple
i m p e Ways
W ay
a y s
to o
C Countdown
o u n t o w n t to Christmas
C h m a as
W
hen the holiday season
unofficially kicks off on
Black Friday, a whirlwind
of activity ensues that leaves families al-
most breathless by the end of December.
Instead of rushing through the month, be
intentional about what you say yes to this
holiday season. Rather than over-commit-
ting to too many parties and activities that
take you away from your family, focus
instead on infusing the holiday spirit into
your family.
But how can you accomplish this
without cramming more activities into an
already frenetic season? Create an advent
calendar, with 25 days of simple, meaning-
ful holiday activities that focus on giving,
family, friendship, fun and tradition.
You can buy an inexpensive advent
calendar with pockets and fill each day
with a fortune-cookie style paper not-
ing the day’s activity, or simply write the
activity-of-the-day on the family calendar
you already use. (Or, you can find free
printable advent calendars online. Check
out https://www.reallifeathome.com/ad-
vent-calendar-activities-printable/ as an
example.) Starting on December 1st, im-
plement one idea each day to slow down
your holidays and focus on intentional ac-
14 WNY Family November 2018
tivities that create lasting memories.
1) Play the Giving Game. Brainstorm
a list of ways you can give to others with-
out buying something from a store. (Exam-
ples: give a smile, a hug, an encouraging
word, a helping hand, etc.) Post the list on
the fridge as a daily reminder. Each night
(at dinner or before bedtime), ask kids to
share how they gave to others throughout
the day. Track everyone’s daily “gifts,” and
at the end of the week, the child who gave
the most gets to choose a holiday flick to
watch for family movie night.
2) Make holiday s’mores, preferably
over a fire pit if you have one. Add crushed
candy canes to a classic s’more recipe for
a festive spin on this classic summertime
treat.
3) Adopt an international Christ-
mas tradition. The Swedes celebrate St.
Lucia Day on December 13, which marks
the beginning of the Christmas season and
focuses on St. Lucy being the light dur-
ing the long, dark Scandinavian winters.
Light up your own holiday season by eat-
ing breakfast or dinner together by can-
dlelight. Or adopt the French tradition of
making buche de Noel, a traditional cake
that resembles a Yule log with bark-col-
ored frosting and a rich, buttercream fill-
ing. Decorate it with “snow” by sprinkling
confectioner’s sugar on top.
4) Blow holiday bubbles outside
by adding red food coloring to one jar of
bubbles and green food coloring to another
bottle. For a crafty twist, blow the colored
bubbles onto snow (or a sheet of white
paper) and watch a Christmas color-burst
emerge.
5) Play Christmas tourist in a
neighboring town. Pop into a local gift
shop to check out holiday treasures. Walk
along the storefronts and look at holiday
window displays. Grab a sweet treat at a
local bakery you’ve never been to before.
6) Cull through old toys, books, and
clothes to give to needy families. Take
your kids with you to donate the items to-
gether.
7) Allow your kids to decorate their
bedroom doors for Christmas and offer
up supplies of garland, ornaments, rib-
bons, etc.
8) Invite grandma or a favorite un-
cle to a craft day or baking day at your
house to ensure your holiday fun extends
to other family members.
9) Designate a “chores for charity”
week. If you normally pay your kids for
their daily chores, ask them to donate their
earnings (matched by mom and dad) to a
charity of their choosing. If you don’t nor-
mally pay for chores, conduct a “chores
for charity” weekend with a menu of spe-
cial paid jobs to choose from (i.e., raking
leaves, cleaning the family car’s interior,
washing windows, etc.). Pool everyone’s
wages and let the kids drop the family do-
nation into a Salvation Army kettle.
10) Attend a community holiday
event (such as a concert, play, craft fes-
tival, live nativity scene, or parade) and
bring a lonely relative, friend, or neighbor
with you.
11) Do a “ding-dong-ditch” by se-
cretly placing a poinsettia plant on a neigh-
bor’s porch, ringing the doorbell and run-
ning away without getting caught.
12) Pick a Secret Santa among fam-
ily members and do something exception-
ally kind for each other every day for a
week. Reveal your Secret Santa identity in
a cookies-and-milk ceremony at the end of
seven days.
13) Ask each family member to
choose a favorite cookie recipe. Then
schedule a few baking sessions to make
batches of each person’s favorite treat. Ev-