Merry Christmas in July!! All week, we’re talking about Christmas. Get ready to get ahead of the game and start your Christmas Season planning early!
I’m sure it’s not hard to believe that someone writing about Christmas in July must really love Christmas. Yep, it’s my favorite holiday and I cannot get enough of it. I plan for Christmas all year. Whether it’s gifts, tree and home décor, travel, or our annual 12 Days of Christmas tradition.
Every year, since 2015, our family celebrates a tradition we call The 12 Days of Christmas. Starting on December 14th, each evening we do a Christmas related activity. To start, my husband or I read a scripture related to our chosen activity, and then we discuss the meaning. Our overall goal with this family tradition is to have intentional fun centered around the reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place, and for our family the meaning is the birth of Jesus.
It doesn’t matter how big or small the activity is, the point is to carve out some fun family time during the busyness of the Christmas season. I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty demanding job, and that includes some late night meetings. Clearing your schedule and prioritizing this time for the 12 days leading to Christmas, will be worth the time together, and the endless laughter and memories.
We’ve tried several different activities over the years, depending on the ages of our kids. Every year I switch it up a little just to keep it interesting and keep trying new things, but also I keep our personal faves in the rotation.
Here are a few of our favorites year after year:
- Gingerbread Manger – We do this one every single year. In fact, it’s our Day 1 activity. I buy a regular Gingerbread house, but we call the house a manger. The best part of this activity is that we throw perfection to the wind and have a messy good time! The kids would say their favorite part is all the candy they eat and icing they lick off their little fingers.
- Pin The Nose On The Snowman – This activity always brings out the giggles and fake dizziness (from the kids). I really love this activity for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s super easy to set up and break down. The second, and most important, is the scripture that we read with this activity Isaiah 42:16-17, which reminds us that the Lord will lead us exactly where we are meant to be, even through our blind spots. You can get the Pin up that we use every year here.
- Operation Reindeer Recovery – This may be my absolute favorite 12 Days of Christmas activity. It’s gets the competitive juices flowing. This activity involves purchasing glittering reindeer ornaments (usually from the dollar tree), and hiding them outside around the yard. We arm the kids with reindeer headbands and flashlights and everyone runs out to recover the missing reindeer in time for them to help Santa deliver gifts on Christmas.
- Snow Sensory Bin – We haven’t done this activity in a couple years. When the kids were younger, sensory bins were a huge part of our daily life. Do you know how long a child will play quietly if you give them a sensory bin? LOL. Now that we have a new little one in the house, the Sensory bin is coming back this Christmas. I use this amazing fake snow as the base. You can use any container you like. I usually make a couple of them in large aluminum pans, so everyone can get equal play. Add in some ornaments of snowmen, reindeer and other items. Even the adults love this one!!
- Christmas S’mores – Don’t worry about it being too cold out for for s’mores. You can bring the fun indoors with this simple setup. Purchase colored sand from Michael’s Craft Store. You can also get colored Wilton candies from there as well to add some Christmas flare. For fire, we use simple sternos and roasting sticks. Food is always a hit for the 12 Days of Christmas, so dig in and have a blast!
Those are just a few of the activities we’ve done throughout the years. We don’t care if the activity is big or small, we always have a boat load of Team Adams fun, and we look forward to it every Christmas season.
If you think your family would love doing the 12 Days of Christmas, check out this free downloadable Activity spreadsheet complete with corresponding Scripture. Leave a comment and let me know which activities you plan to try!
We can’t wait to hear about your fun Christmas season activities!
Have Fun!
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