25 Days of Christmas
Hello there, friends! It is that time of the year again! It’s time for one of my favorite lists! Our 25 Days of Christmas list! YESSSSSS!!
Until I became a mom, I was an absolute Grinch at Christmas time. I couldn’t stand the holidays. But since I became a mom, I am the complete opposite. I start to think about Christmas earlier and earlier every year now. And we do more and more fun activities!
We have been doing “25 Days of Christmas” lists for the last few years and always enjoy them so much. They are one of my favorite things to put together for our family. It’s even more fun when we all get together to partake in the day’s activity to build the Christmas spirit!
We do at least one Christmas-related thing every day. These things can range from a simple Santa coloring page for the kiddos to the bigger things, like getting a Christmas tree.
I usually plan about 4-5 “big” things that include all 3 of us. Then a handful of activities are just for Barrett and the rest can be done with anyone or all of us together. This way, if Dada can join us, we can adjust plans on short notice.
We do use this list to help with holiday prep and tasks as you will see below. Some stuff we are going to be doing anyway, but I make sure to factor that in so that I don’t plan too much for us! Gotta have that downtime around the holidays too!
Table of Contents
25 Days of Christmas 2023
- Make snowflakes for the front windows and sliding glass doors. We are going to be using coffee filters and washable markers to make these. Just make some marks on the coffee filters with the markers, whichever colors and designs you want, and drip or spray some water on them, enough to make the colors run to your liking, then let dry. Once they are dry, just use them as you would a normal piece of paper, fold, make cuts, and unfold.
- Make a list of people for treat baskets and plan treats for the baskets. We take time as a family and plan out our Christmas gift baskets for our friends. We usually plan to drop them off at our library, doctor’s office, and some of our friend’s houses.
- Go supply shopping for friends Christmas treats baskets and Christmas Eve baking. We compile a giant list of everything we are going to need for the baskets and baking, put on our Santa hats, and head to the store. It’s usually half day’s worth of shopping and stores, but we have so much fun with it.
- Go shopping for a Christmas tree and set it up. Last year we got a real tree and as much as I loved it, I do not want to deal with that mess again. So, this year, we are going to get a prelit, fake tree and I am completely okay with that.
- Get out the old Christmas decorations and sort through them. Decorate with what we have and toss the mess from years passed.
- Shop for new decorations and then put them up. Every year I try to freshen up some of our Christmas decor so I buy just a few things new each year.
- Make ornaments. Every year we find a new DIY ornament idea and make it as a family. Here are some that we have made in the past!
- Hot chocolate Bar party with friends. We are planning on setting up a hot chocolate bar with all the fixings and having a brunch playdate! I found some cute ideas at https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/hot-chocolate-bar/. Can’t wait to give this a try!
- Make some Christmas decor. Along with buying a few new pieces of Christmas decor every year, we make some as well!
- Make wrapping paper for family gifts. In years past, we have just used kraft paper rolls from the dollar store for the paper. We take stamps, shapes, markers, stickers, or whatever else you want, and use them to decorate the paper and let it dry. Once it dries, it’s a super unique paper that family and friends will love to see their gifts wrapped in.
- Donate old toys and clothes. Leading up to the big day, I work on cleaning out some of our old stuff to make room for the new toys that are bound to take over our house soon. We use this opportunity to donate to local families that may need a little help at the holidays.
- Christmas craft kit. We pick these up every year from the dollar tree and always have a great time making them. Here’s last year’s Felt Stocking Craft that turned into a whole lot of decorations for us.
- Christmas Movie Marathon! I’ve usually watched most of my favorites a few times already at this point, but we save a few to watch as a family. We try to pick a newer Christmas movie to watch as well, not just our old faves. It’s nice to shake things up a bit.
- Go see Santa! Our local library hosts Santa and Mrs Claus every year. They are the best! This is one of the things I look forward to the most! And I am so happy that we have been able to see the same Santa every year!
- Mail Christmas Cards and Christmas treat baskets. This is usually just a fun little trip for Barrett and me. We put on our Santa hats and head to the post office.
- Deliver local treat baskets to friends. We shall again put on our Santa hats and spend some time delivering the baskets around locally to our friends.
- Go to the holiday light maze at Local Homestead with friends. We have done this for the last few years and the boys always have a blast together. There’s a ton there to do so if you’re local to my area and haven’t gone yet, DO IT!
- Pick and local cause to donate to and go shopping for them. Deliver. Every year we pick a local cause to help out for the Christmas Season. We usually like to pick a local charity that is doing a food pantry or meals for people who may otherwise not be able to have them. Once we pick, we go shopping for the donation and then deliver them.
- Gingerbread house decorating. We keep this one easy and just get a kit, but it’s still fun.
- Christmas Scavenger Hunt. I have put together a fun little Christmas-time scavenger hunt for our family to do one evening. You can make your own for an indoor or outdoor hunt that your whole family is bound to enjoy doing.
- Purchase books for Little Free Libraries near us. This is something we do a few times a year and it’s a favorite of mine. We usually purchase them from our local library so it helps them out as well.
- Virtual Family Gathering. All of our family is pretty spread out, on both sides, so we don’t usually see them for the holidays. A virtual gathering is a great way to get everyone together instead!
- Drive around and look at Christmas lights. One of my favorite Christmas pastimes is looking at Christmas lights. I remember riding around with my grandparents and doing this as a kid. I make sure this is one thing that doesn’t get overlooked during the season.
- CHRISTMAS EVE! Make Santa Claus’s Cookies. Christmas Eve Box for Barrett. Family movie on the couch.
- MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
25 Days of Christmas 2022
1. Make Window Decorations- Cut out shapes from cardboard or cardstock. Cut out the center of the shapes and place a layer of contact paper on the back. Fill in the sticky part of contact paper with tissue paper, glitter, stickers, etc. Once all of the sticky part is covered, decorate the rest as you would like. When done, hang in the window.
2. Decorate Santa’s beard page with crayons and fill in the beard with glue and cotton balls.
3. Go shopping as a family for some new Christmas decorations.
4. Make paper lanterns for windowsills (we will be making 4)- Use construction paper, fold them in half, and cut slits along the crease of the folded side. Unfold, turn the paper so that the slits run from top to bottom. Then roll it into a cylinder, and attach the ends together with a stapler. You can add a handle to the top with another piece of paper if you would like. Decorate how you want. We use a combo of stickers and crayons usually. Finally, when these are decorated to your liking, place on the windowsill and add a battery-operated tea light at the bottom.
5. Make Snow Globes are one of my favorite Christmas crafts. For a walkthrough on these in ornament form, check here. I actually found the blanks to make actual snow globes this year, so we are going to try that out instead of ornaments this year. The globes are a little bit bigger than the ornaments so we will have more options to decorate them on the inside. We use all Dollar Tree stuff for these as well.
6. Get Christmas decorations out of storage and put them up around the house.
7. Make Wrapping paper for family gifts- I get a roll of brown Kraft paper from Dollar Tree, some small wooden shapes, and Tumbling Tower pieces (these are a miniature Jenga block game that Dollar Tree sells). Hot glue the wooden shapes to the ends of the blocks and let dry. To set this up : Lay out the Kraft paper (protect your surface underneath if needed), set out paints, and let the kiddo(s) stamp the Kraft paper with the shapes and paints. These are another super versatile craft and can be done using many different types of mediums and decorations. Once dry, cut to the desired length and wrap the present as you normally would.
8. Make treat bags for baked goods- Follow the same steps as for making wrapping paper. You can use brown paper bags, small plastic treat bags, or small canvas gift bags. The possibilities are endless.
9. Make foam window decorations- These are a kit purchased from Dollar tree.
10. Get a Christmas tree.
11. Decorate the Christmas tree!! Movie night! and hot Cocoa.
12. Make Christmas gifts and cards for grandparents.
13. Mail out Christmas Cards.
14. Make ornaments- I don’t have these planned out at the moment but I will update you when I plan them out.
15. Wrap Christmas presents for the family.
16. Bake cookies and treats for the family.
17. Package up and mail out Christmas presents and goodies for family.
18. Shop for Christmas family donation stuff- Not quite planned yet, but will update this when we have decided what we will be doing this year. In the past, we have shopped for non-perishables to donate, purchased or donated toys for other families in the community, etc.
19. Christmas family donation drop off.
20. Drop off Christmas cards and goodies to local friends.
21. Bring coffee and Christmas treat goodies to our local librarians.
22. Wrap dada’s Christmas present and make him a card.
23. Drive around and look at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music.
24. Bake cookies for Santa, Christmas Eve box with movie, pjs’ and hot cocoa, family Christmas movie!
25. ITS FINALLY CHRISTMAS!!!
And there you have it, friends! We plan to get ready for Christmas. There is always a ton of other holiday stuff that we do, but this is planned out so that we have at least one Christmas Activity per day. I will be posting updates and pictures on the blog’s Facebook page so be sure to follow along with me here! And share your lists and creations there as well!! Until next time, friends!!
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
These are such fun ideas! I’ll have to try some of these 🙂
What a great tradition and this list looks so fun! I want to try the snow globe idea.
What a great list to the Christmas Spirit alive!
What a great tradition, I have to try this out myself!