Build up to Christmas

I’ve been reminded how many days there are until Christmas in our house since June by our daughter.  It’s always the first thing she thinks of after she has celebrated her birthday.  Now finally it is fast approaching and advent calendars have gone up today, so that we can begin the official countdown.

Both of our boys have the normal chocolate advent calendars and this year our daughter has opted for a beauty product one, which I managed to buy half price in October.  (Will need to remind myself next year to look for another bargain, as clearly good advertising ploy for the teenage girl market!)  Besides this, our children are spoilt by their Nan who makes them up an advent gift bag and every 3 days, they each receive a small present.  Our daughter has already convinced her brothers to take their turns for a gift on 1 and 2 December, so that when she has her first gift on 3 December, she will then receive her final gift on Christmas Eve.  On the days they don’t get a gift, they get a chocolate coin instead.  Although our youngest son tends to eat all of his chocolate coins in one go and has in the past emptied his gift bag on the same day.  

We sat down last night and wrote an advent activities list, which is similar to the bucket list we do in the summer holidays.  All three children have chosen things for us to do during the month of December including simple things like sending our Christmas cards, making reindeer food, having a games night, eating pancakes and the main event that we are all counting down to in our house is our visit to Harry Potter Studios on Christmas Eve.  This will take away the anxiety that the build up to Christmas can cause our youngest son, as this gives him something else to focus on.

Another tradition I’ve begun this year is an advent joke box for our youngest son.  He loves silly jokes and it encourages him to read, as this is not one of his favourite things to do.  This year, I’ve filled a small box with 25 Christmas themed joked and each day he can take one out to read.

It has been agreed that our Christmas tree will not go up until the kids have finished school to help our youngest son cope, as he doesn’t like it being up too long.  Our daughter has had her Christmas tree up in her bedroom since 22 November - it always goes up the day after our eldest son’s birthday and this year was still up in March.  I have a feeling it will stay up until Easter next year and then she will convert it into an Easter tree!!

Enjoy the magic of Christmas – the build up is the best part, as the day itself soon flies by.  Although in our house, presents to the kids are distributed over a few days, so that our youngest son is not overwhelmed with everything.  This means the magic lasts that much longer and all 3 kids are happy with that arrangement.