The Twenty-four Days of Christmas

Over 60 ideas to use with your family to create meaningful memories and traditions!

© 2008 Becky Spencer

I'm delighted to share these ideas for family Christmas celebrations during the 24 days leading up to Christmas Day. Our family has used many of these and others will be incorporated as the needs of our family grow and change.

We began using the 24 days of Christmas when my husband Tracy and I adopted a family of four children, joining the three we already had. Funds were tight with seven kids at home, and we ended up adding one more baby to the total count, so we tried to find activities to make our holiday celebration meaningful without spending lots of money.

Even now, our adult children want to know what we have planned so they can come over to enjoy the fun when we're doing their favorite things! It's been a joy to watch our grandchildren starting to look forward to these special times together now, as well.

The idea began when at a garage sale I found a huge felt tree with 24 little pockets underneath it. I began writing the activities on a piece of parchment paper, then sewing the pockets closed with a ribbon that the children could clip loose each new morning. Their excitement was contagious as they gathered near to take turns discovering what fun was planned for that day.

This does take some planning and consulting the calendar to make it work. We've had days when we had to switch which ribbon was removed to accommodate unforeseen changes to our plans. But the children don't mind as long as they get to do whatever is on the day that has been opened. And when that simply isn't possible, you can make it up to them another day. You can also repeat an easy activity such as eating candy canes when you have several busy days that don't lend themselves to extra activity. The purpose is to build memories and remember what Christmas is really about in the midst of the hustle and bustle, not to give families one more rigid obligation!

You don't have to have a felt tree like us Spencers; just write the ideas on construction paper slips and put them together in a paper chain that can be clipped off each day! Or seal the ideas in numbered envelopes kept in a basket! Be creative! You can also shorten this to the 12 days of Christmas or even choose one special activity to repeat annually.

Now enjoy the season and go build some memories! Then let me know what ideas your family comes up with to add to these; maybe we'll want to experience some of your fun activities, too! May God bless your family as you interact with one another and celebrate the first coming of our Savior!

Sincerely,

Becky

PS You may share or copy these ideas with others; just please include my copyright and contact info.

Becky Spencer, 406 W. Ave. A, Buhler, KS 67522, (620) 543-6518, becky@beckyspencerministries.com

1) Eat candy canes.

2) Watch "It's a Wonderful Life."

3) Cut down a Christmas tree.

4) Decorate the tree.

5) Hang lights.

6) Make treats for neighbors and shut-ins.

7) Go Christmas caroling.

9) Play dominoes, preferably with a grandparent.

10) Play cards.

11) Watch "Miracle on 34th Street."

12) Watch "Preacher's Wife."

13) Make peanut brittle or other Christmas candy.

14) Have orange "floats" (stick a straight, porous candy cane--the old-fashioned kind-- into an orange and suck the juice through the candy cane straw).

15) Read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

16) Listen to Christmas music by candlelight.

17) Play Christmas charades (use Biblical and other Christmas phrases plus titles of carols).

18) Play board games.

19) Decorate t-shirts or sweatshirts with fabric paint.

20) Put together a puzzle.

21) Take communion as a family.

22) Spin the "love" bottle. (Sit in a circle on the floor and spin the bottle. The spinner says something nice about the person it's pointing to. Continue until everyone has received kind words and given them, as well. Family size will determine how many times this is repeated!)

23) Go skating or ice-skating

24) Attend a live nativity or Christmas concert together.

25) Take a walk in a neighborhood with luminaries.

26) Take a sleigh ride!

27) Take family pictures with all wearing red or green.

28) Drink hot cocoa and tell a favorite Christmas gift ever received.

29) Bless a grandparent or older person in your church by having a work day at their house, doing needed projects. Then either make dinner or take it with you to share together, followed by playing a game or singing for them.

30) Gather gently used toys to donate to a shelter.

31) Buy Christmas dinner and make special treats to take to a family in need.

32) Put together a basket of special gifts for a family in need.

33) Draw pictures of what Christmas means to you, individually or on a large mural together. You could also make a collage from magazine cutouts.

34) Play Twister and take pictures of family members in crazy positions!

35) Take a shopping trip together to buy presents.

36) Re-enact the Christmas story at home with family members playing each part.

37) Make snowflakes to hang in the entry.

38) Sponsor a needy child. (Grand Staff Ministries has profiles of children in Africa!)

39) Sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" together.

40) Pull taffy.

41) If there's snow, go sledding or make a snowman.

42) Go out for peppermint ice cream or crush peppermints to put on vanilla ice cream at home.

43) Decorate brown paper sacks or paper with Christmas stamps or stickers or draw pictures to use for wrapping presents. (You can get blank newsprint paper from most newsrooms.

44) Watch "A Christmas Carol." (Might be scary to very little ones.)

45) Read a collection of Christmas stories from your local library.

46) Drive around town slowly to look at Christmas lights.

47) Adopt a needy family and provide gifts, food, and certificates for fun activities for them for Christmas. (Usually your local church or social services can help you identify someone who would be blessed by your acts of loving kindness.)

48) Visit an orphanage and take treats and cards to the children, sharing God's love and yours.

49) Write a story of your idea of the perfect Christmas, fictional or otherwise. This can be done individually or as a group. (If you do this as a group, the story would proceed as one person starts a sentence, then each one adds one sentence until it seems complete.)

50) Make ornaments. You can get jillions of ideas online.

51) Interview an older person to find out what Christmas was like when he or she was a youngster. Consider doing several and making it into a booklet that you add to each year, combining it with your own family memories to pass down.

52) Have a video/pizza/slumber party, inviting either older children in your family or grandchildren or other family or friends. Everybody can put on their pj's sometime after dinner and eat snacks all night while watching movies--or at least until you all pass out!

53) Have gingerbread and apple cider. It's nice to plan this after a Christmas program and invite guests to share!

54) Make handcrafted gifts for someone special.

55) Watch those home videos that are gathering dust. Viewing one of a new baby born in the family can spur discussions about what it was like for Mary having baby Jesus.

56) Watch "The Nativity."

57) Plan a "girl" day with manicures and pedicures. (Hair dressing colleges have reduced rates from the students in training or you can give them to each other at home.) Let the "guys" watch football or a guy movie with snacks during that time.

58) Buy a movie that the kids have been wanting, then write clues on pieces of paper that allow them to go on a hunt around the house where the movie will be waiting after the last clue. This is tons of fun--even more fun than watching the movie! Make your clues follow the theme of the movie when possible.

59) View a live nativity or visit a farm that has donkeys and a feeding trough, entering the barn with the vivid smells and sounds that must have greeted baby Jesus.

60) Make breakfast in bed for the whole family to enjoy all crammed together in the largest bed in the house! This can be a family favorite or cranberry nut coffeecake or some other Christmas-y treat!

61) Go bowling.

62) Host a neighborhood Christmas block party with simple treats so the neighbors can get to know each other.

63) Ask a grandmother or older woman from church to teach you to crochet, then make scarves for family or the needy.

64) Make popcorn balls.

c 2005 B. Spencer