Before we forget, what were some of your

[nesser1981]

favorite activities on your countdown to Christmas this year?

I'm trying to come up with a few new ones for next year and I want to pack my list up with my Christmas decorations.

I think a few of ours were, visiting the kids Great-Grandparents on Sean's side. The kids loved it and so did the great-grandparents.

The cinnamon ornaments where another huge hit. And delivering baked goodies to our neighbors.

We did family game night twice and Keira asked if I couldn't come up with anything else. LOL! So I need a good game plan.

[mummytothree]

Stringing popcorn
Wrapping their gift exchange gifts
Movie night with a special treat...their favorite was the homemade whoopie pies!!!

[Misty Cato]

Oooh great thread.

One event that turned out to be much bigger hit than I expected was taking the kids out to buy gifts for each other. They each got a set amount of money and DH and I split up each taking a kid and they selected their gifts for each other. Those gifts were first thing they wanted to open Christmas morning - it was really cute. The $3 rubber lizard Mya picked out for Jamin is one of the favorite things he received (and he got some high ticket items from his grandparents that don't even come close to the love his lizard got).

We made 'Snowman Soup' (cocoa with marshmallow and chocolate mix-ins, stirred with a candy cane) and snuggled in with blankets and PJs and watched a Christmas movie.

One day on a whim I got out a bunch of photos from previous Christmases and the kids got a kick out of them, so I've made a note to make this a regular thing each year.

Looking forward to hearing other ideas too.

[Misty Cato]

Oh yeah, we had a sugar cookie decorating open house and invited the whole world (well ok, classmates, Sunday school class, neighbors and a few other friends, it felt like the whole world). It was a huge hit and I'm a bit worried it will have to be an annual event (really fun, but a ton of work for me.)

[MamaBee]

My son favorite is making marshmallow reindeer... well, he made snowman... LOL! He has asked everyday if today we are going to make more reindeer...

[nun69]

the gingerbread house was huge here....all 4 kids from ages 17 to 3 got involved!

[nesser1981]

Originally Posted by Misty Cato

Oh yeah, we had a sugar cookie decorating open house and invited the whole world (well ok, classmates, Sunday school class, neighbors and a few other friends, it felt like the whole world). It was a huge hit and I'm a bit worried it will have to be an annual event (really fun, but a ton of work for me.)

Oooh, that sounds fun!

[pewtertm]

Mine had to be Candlelight service on Christmas Eve...watching a good friend lean over to my mom and Rachel and light their candles, and all of their faces lighting up in the dark of the sanctuary...chill bump moment

[hmlentz]

Let's see, one of our favorites is making the goodie bags for our gifts- we usually make nutcracker bags, and another day we fill them.
We also drive around looking at Christmas lights one night. The kids get in their jammies and we play Christmas music.
We also make apple santas- this is a craft my mom in Germany use to do and we do with our kids now. They turn out very cute. You put a toothpick in one end of a walnut (it will easily slide in one end) and stab it down into a red delicious (or other red) apple. Then take a cotton ball and pull and tease a beard out of it and glue it on around the sides and bottom of the walnut. Make a cone hat out of red paper and decorate with more cottonballs. Draw eyes on the walnut and you have an adorable santa apple. http://lh3.ggpht.com/__n-f_ipDE50/TR...964%5B4%5D.jpgThere's a picture if you want to see my sons apple santa. They LOVE making them every year. We also usually put a movie on one of our days as a family activity, oh, and each child gets a date with mom or dad one day. It's nothing big- like a $10 or less date, but it is very important to them and probably the highlight activity.

[nesser1981]

Originally Posted by hmlentz

Let's see, one of our favorites is making the goodie bags for our gifts- we usually make nutcracker bags, and another day we fill them.
We also drive around looking at Christmas lights one night. The kids get in their jammies and we play Christmas music.
We also make apple santas- this is a craft my mom in Germany use to do and we do with our kids now. They turn out very cute. You put a toothpick in one end of a walnut (it will easily slide in one end) and stab it down into a red delicious (or other red) apple. Then take a cotton ball and pull and tease a beard out of it and glue it on around the sides and bottom of the walnut. Make a cone hat out of red paper and decorate with more cottonballs. Draw eyes on the walnut and you have an adorable santa apple. http://lh3.ggpht.com/__n-f_ipDE50/TR...964%5B4%5D.jpgThere's a picture if you want to see my sons apple santa. They LOVE making them every year. We also usually put a movie on one of our days as a family activity, oh, and each child gets a date with mom or dad one day. It's nothing big- like a $10 or less date, but it is very important to them and probably the highlight activity.

Oh I love the Santa. And maybe we'll do the date day next year. This year most of the actvites were for keira, Coop was just too little.

[nesser1981]

I almost forgot, Keira making dinner was a huge hit! She was so excited. Coop helped too, he did the salad. And we invited Grandma & Grandpa over. BIg hit.

[Megan Turnidge]

Camping out in front of the tree all night as a family was definitely my fave... and Allie LOOOOVED it too!