Have you decided on your family activities for December? Unless you’ve already started planning, this is a great time to start. There are wonderful activities you can choose from online to start or continue family traditions.
The activities typically work well for homeschoolers, families who don’t homeschool, school teachers, and group leaders. Just choose the activities that fit your children’s ages and interests. These aren’t necessarily Montessori activities – just great family-centered activities.
Note: Here are just 50+ December activities. See my post farther down for all the (hundreds of) December activities at Living Montessori Now!
Christian Christmas Activities
Here are some sites with December activities with a Christian emphasis:
Thanks to Leslie from Thoughts from the Sheepfold and Storyteller from Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way, I learned about the video “Advent in 2 Minutes” from Busted Halo.
Busted Halo’s Advent Surprise Calendar (online calendar – great for teenagers and adults)
Advent Calendar from Beliefnet (online calendar)
Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Calendar from Joyfully Weary
Names of Jesus Advent Chain (Photo from Spell Outloud)
The Names of Jesus Advent Chain (photo) from Spell Outloud
Printable Advent Chain from The Catholic Toolbox
Free Printable Jesse Tree Ornaments and Devotions for Advent 2011 from Tired, Need Sleep
How to Celebrate Advent with a Jesse Tree (free eBook) from Feels Like Home
Refocusing Christmas: Our Jesse Tree from La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life
Advent from Homeschooled Kids
Homemade Advent Crown from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots
Advent Activities 2011 (Image from Training Happy Hearts)
Planning a Simple, Yet Complete Advent 2011: An Alphabet of Plans for a Literature-Based Family Advent Rich in Sensory Input and Special Activities from Training Happy Hearts
Advent Agent (free printable) from The Only Thing Pink in a World Gone Blue
Truth in the Tinsel from Home with the Boys
How We Celebrate Advent from Real Life at Home
Advent for Children: 10 Products under $10 from Catholic Icing
Christmas Around the World: Calendar Connections (Photo from 1+1+1=1)
12 Days of Christmas – Christmas Around the World Calendar Connections from 1+1+1=1
Using the Christmas Angel to Encourage Kindness (my post at Bits of Positivity)
Daily December Secular Activities or a Mixture of Christian and Secular Activities
Advent Calendars
20+ Acts of Kindness Advent Calendars and Christmas Countdowns (my post at Bits of Positivity)
Activity Advent Countdowns from The Activity Mom
Advent Calendar Ideas from The Crafty Crow
Kid-Friendly Advent Calendar Ideas from Hobo Mama
Christmas Advent Ideas from Teach Beside Me
10 Fabulous Homemade Advent Calendars from The Imagination Tree
Advent Activity Calendar from Teach Mama
24 Nature Play and Eco Craft Activities ~ Countdown to Christmas from Little Eco Footprints
A Different Kind of Advent Calendar (positive character traits) from Creekside Learning
Personalized Christmas Advent Calendar {Free Printable} from Living Locurto
Christmas Activity Calendar from Dilly-Dali Art
Santa Box Advent Calendar from Kathy’s Cottage
Advent Countdown Calendar Including 100 Activities: FREE Printables from Design Dazzle
Cutting Paper Strips for Advent Countdown Chains (Photo from The Education of Ours)
Advent Countdown Calendars Made out of Paper Chains from The Education of Ours
Advent Calendar Activities from The Peaceful Mom
Advent Teaching Resources from TES (you just have to register to download free resources)
Advent Calendars from Chestnut Grove Academy
Advent Calendar (Photo from Leptir
Our Advent Calendar from Leptir
Christmas Activities from the Past from Inspiration Surrounds: Creativity Abounds
Advent Calendar (tutorial) from burlap + blue
Advent Envelopes
Photo by Jessica Lucia at Flickr Creative Commons. (If you’d like a tutorial, there’s one at Easy DIY advent calendar: 25 small folded paper envelopes from A Peek Inside the Fishbowl.)
Christmas Books
Christmas Book Basket for Those of Us Who Just CAN’T do a Christmas Book Countdown (my post)
Christmas Books from Spell Outloud
Christmas Book Advent Calendar from The Inspiration Thief
Christmas Book Countdown (Photo from Kindergarten and Preschool for Parents and Teachers)
Christmas Countdown with Books from Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents
Our Advent Season Activities and Book List from Stop, Drop, and Blog
Kindness Elves (12 Days, Starting December 12)
Where to Get the Best Kindness Elves with Options for Skin, Hair, and Clothing Color (my post at Bits of Positivity)
How to Make the Switch to Kindness Elves from Elf on the Shelf (my post at Bits of Positivity)
Mixture of Activities
December Advent Countdown Box from Are We There Yet?
Christmas Tree of Heart Shapes (Photo from Learning Ideas Grades K-8)
Christmas Crafts (Paper Christmas Tree Craft photo) from Learning Ideas – Grades K-8
Holiday Traditions from 123 Homeschool 4 Me
Christmas Fun from 1+1+1=1
If you’d like to find all my December activities here at Living Montessori Now, be sure to check out my post with Hundreds of December Holiday Activities (Christian, Jewish, and Secular) for Kids.
Online Advent Calendar
Advent Calendar – Secondary (math) from nrich
Kids’ Christmas Activities Pinterest Board
I have lots of Advent Calendars along with many other Christmas activities of all types in my Kids’ Christmas Activities Pinterest board. Often, you’ll be able to tell which activities you like best by choosing a visual image from the board.
Note: If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all these activities and/or the holiday season in general, please check out my post and links at Bits of Positivity: Feeling Joy This Holiday Season.
Photo Credit: “All I want for Christmas is … joie de vivre” by Let Go at Flickr Creative Commons.
I’d love to hear about your December family traditions! 🙂
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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We have a slew of Christmas Advent Ideas, Christmas books & more at http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com =-) In case you want to include it in an upcoming post. Thanks for sharing so many resources!!
Thanks, Beth! I had already added your holiday traditions link under my “Mixture of Activities” category. You definitely have lots of awesome activities! 🙂
Ooops I missed that. Thanks for listing us =-) I love all these resources – I have a LOT of reading to do!!
Have a GREAT day =-)
Beth
There are lots of links to sort through – and I’m just getting started! LOL I hope you have a great day, too! 🙂
Thanks for the feature! 🙂 This is a great resource list.
My pleasure, Maureen! I LOVE your Advent chain. And thanks for your kind comment! 🙂
Thanks so much Deb! This is an awesome post as usual. 🙂
I reposted on FB and Twitter.
Marcia 🙂
Thanks so much for your kind words and for sharing my post, Marcia! And thanks for the wonderful activities you share through your blog! 🙂
Hey, Deb, I am trying to have a simple Advent with lots of momma-kid reading time as you can tell from the post of ours which you featured (thanks). Now, though, am tempted to ignore them to click-click-click away on all these links. Another wonderful collection — and so tempting.
LOL, Martianne! I would be tempted if I had kids at home, too! Thanks so much for the awesome Advent ideas you’re sharing. I love that you really work to keep your family centered on what’s most important. 🙂
Thank you, Deb, for featuring my character advent calendar. What a wonderful list of so many great ideas you have here. Off to explore the links!
My pleasure, Julie! Thanks for your kind words and for sharing such a wonderful Advent calendar. It’s unique to focus on character traits in an Advent calendar and something I totally love. Character development for kids is one of my big soapbox topics (http://raisingfigureskaters.com/2011/08/19/what-about-your-kids-character/). If my kids weren’t already adults, I would have loved your Advent activities as a way to review character traits we’d studied in our KONOS units. 🙂
Thanks for the shout out about our Jesse Tree!
Love this post. Going to try some new things! Thanks.
My pleasure, Rebecca … I love your ideas! Thanks for your kind comment. I hope you find some activities that work well for your family! 🙂
This is a Great List of Christmas activities! Good videos and well-resourced links.
Thanks for your kind words, Lyka! Have a wonderful rest of the week! 🙂
Excellent post! I totally love the links and I still have a long way to go before I finish all of them!
Thanks, Erica! There are definitely a lot of links to go through – and I just keep finding more! 🙂
Thanks for linking to me 🙂 Can you believe it’s December 1 and I am *just getting around* to hanging up my advent calendar? In fact I’m getting ready to send Tom to the store for some mini-clothespins 😉
My pleasure, Dionna … and thanks for your comment! I can’t believe it’s December either. I guess I’m lucky my kids are grown and I don’t need to be truly prepared until a bit later in the month! 🙂
What a collection of ideas!
Thanks, JDaniel4’s Mom! I’m having so much fun checking out all the amazing Advent activities in the blogosphere … so much creativity out there!
Wow that is an amazing list!
Thanks, Esther! I’ve already gotten lost in all the amazing activities … I can just imagine if my kids were still at home! 🙂
You always come up with the most amazing round ups. I love this one and will have to spend some time reading your links! Thanks for doing this and sharing it.
Kelly
Thanks so much, Kelly! And you have such amazing Advent/Christmas activities! I just added your photo and posts to my post above! 🙂
Absolutely wonderful resources… again, thank you so much for sharing your research & creativity!
Thanks so much, Share! I have lots of fun researching online … it’s amazing that I just keep finding and adding more and more ideas! 🙂
Deb, thank you for sharing my activities 🙂
My pleasure, Nataša! Your Advent calendar is beautiful! 🙂
Love all these great ideas! Thanks for the post!
Thanks, Andrea! These types of posts are a lot of work, but I love finding so many great ideas online! 🙂
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