What exactly are we talking about?
* About what an Advent calendar is and what pleasant and useful activities you can organize with its help :)
* About how to prevent your child from getting all the gifts at once.
* How to quickly and beautifully make a Christmas calendar for a child with your own hands from matchboxes, envelopes and bags.
* About what gifts and tasks can be given as a surprise.

So,

What is an Advent calendar and what pleasant and useful activities can you organize with its help?

There is such a wonderful thing - an Advent calendar. There were no such things in my childhood, because I live in the former USSR, and this tradition is Catholic.

It is a picture with Christmas motifs and 24 doors behind which little surprises are hidden.

Initially, the calendar depicted religious scenes marking the coming of Christ, and behind the doors were hidden explanations for these scenes. Now they have been replaced by chocolate, etc. The first door opens on December 1st, and the last one opens on Christmas Day.

I prudently don’t put the gifts all at once, but one every day, otherwise the impatient child will get them all at once :)

A toy Santa Claus or Snowman gave gifts.

The Advent calendar helps you combine business with pleasure. With its help, you can not only give your child many gifts. At the same time, you can learn the concepts of “date”, “day”, “how many days are left”, “what is the date today”, etc.

A needlewoman from the 7ya website (unfortunately, there is no exact information about the author) made a calendar in which the past days of December are covered with felt New Year’s motifs hidden in pockets:

Such pictures can be attached using Velcro, pins or paper clips.

What is Advent anyway? Advent- a religious term, it means the period before the Nativity of Christ (Catholic). These are the 4 weeks of December, during which people prepare for the holiday, a time of “bright anticipation”. Back in the 17th century, believers came up with something like a Christmas waiting calendar - they painted the required number of sticks on the walls in the house, washing only one every day. The fewer sticks left, the closer the holiday was.

An advent calendar close to the modern one appeared at the end of the 19th century in Germany. Frau Lang was so tormented by her son Gerhard, who regularly asked his mother when Christmas would come, that she could not stand it and made a special calendar for her son. This calendar had as many windows as there were days before the holiday. Every day little Gerhard could open only one window, behind which were hidden small cookies. So the child could see how many days are left until Christmas. When Gerhard Lang grew up, he put his mother's invention on a commercial basis - in 1908 the first batch of advent calendars was released.

In Russia, the tradition of using advent calendars appeared relatively recently. In our country, the main children's holiday is the New Year, so the number of calendar windows should most likely be 31. In some large stores you can find a classic calendar (a postcard with candies) or a “blank” for making it at home. Due to the difficulties of purchasing Advent calendars, and simply because of the desire to make something for their children, many mothers are increasingly making Advent calendars themselves. Think about it, it’s so nice to give joy to a child - to fill the anticipation of the holiday with magic! In addition, any thing made with your own hands carries warmth and a positive charge of energy. So why not invest this energy in your baby?

How to quickly and beautifully make a Christmas calendar for a child with your own hands?

Yes, you can easily make such beautiful calendars yourself. If you have time and patience :) But what to do if you want to please your child with such a gift, but you don’t have the time, patience, or skills?

There are simple and at the same time chic solutions on how to make a beautiful and interesting Christmas calendar with your own hands in one evening.

Solution #1 - matchboxes

One of the oldest ways to make an advent calendar is using matchboxes.

The boxes can be painted or covered with colorful paper. Then you need to thread the ribbon, put the surprise in the boxes and hang it on the Christmas tree or on a string in the form of a garland.

Solution #2 - gift bags

We buy small paper bags, stick the date on them and put small gifts in them for every day.

I covered small juice boxes with wrapping paper, glued paper snowflakes to them and wrote numbers from 1 to 7 on them.

You can hang it the same way as matchboxes - on a Christmas tree or as a garland. Or you can just throw it in a heap :)

Solution #3 - paper envelopes

We take ordinary paper envelopes. Without a brand :) These are sold in office supplies and cost pennies. We decorate them, put gifts and hang them up.

Or you can not decorate much, but do it, for example, like this:

What gifts and tasks can be included as a surprise?

Suitable for such gifts:

small cars,

Pencils,

Magnets,

Small animal figurines,

Glass balls,

Christmas cookie cutter,

Tickets for the Christmas show

And other small items.

And you can put not only material things:

The first line of the Christmas story you read to your children before bed is

Hints to help children find the hidden gift

The name of the food you will be making with your children that day, such as some special Christmas cookies (or a photo of the cookies you will be baking!),

What are you planning on this day? Let the child find a message on the calendar like: “today we will go choose a Christmas tree,” “today we will watch fireworks,” “today we will bake cookies and watch a comedy,” etc.

Assignment for the day: draw an unusual cake for the New Year, write a letter to Santa Claus, learn a poem, solve riddles, make gifts for grandparents, decorate the Christmas tree, windows, door, etc.

Such tasks will not only create a festive mood, but will also help the whole family prepare for Christmas and the New Year.

More options:

Advent calendar - waiting calendar Christmas- came to us from Western Europe. At first, colorful boxes with windows and small chocolates inside appeared on sale, and then Russian mothers-handicrafts and entertainers began to come up with their own calendars: sewn and cardboard, with bags, envelopes and even buckets as pockets.

And filling the waiting calendars (this is the holiday we look forward to most and prepare for) has become not only “candy”: there can be small toys, winter poems and riddles, as well as tasks for the child and plans for the day that we have to carry out together with mom or the whole family. Here are a few ideas from the book, which is called “New Year's Waiting Calendar” - and can turn into a calendar itself!

New Year traditions

In anticipation of the New Year, any activities that sum up the year, record annual changes and “look” into the future will be useful. Actually, this is how family traditions are born - be it a photo of a large family with grandparents near the New Year tree or a special one. Here are a couple of similar ideas.

Photo album. Print out the photos you took throughout the year and collect them in a photo album. It is interesting to create such albums with photographs of the most interesting and significant events every year. You can also make a collage from printed photographs and hang it on the wall.

New Year's interview. Ask your child to answer your questions. Videotape your answers or simply write them down.

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?
2. What do you love to do most?
3. What is your favorite food?
4. What's your favorite toy?
5. What is your favorite animal?
6. What is your favorite cartoon and book?
7. What fairy tale character would you like to become?
8. What are you afraid of?
9. What makes you sad?
10. What makes you cheerful?

The list can be shortened or supplemented with any questions. It is interesting to conduct such an interview every year: ask the same questions, and then compare the answers.

Such a calendar develops patience in children and helps them learn to wait: after all, you can open the pocket only once a day! And it gives adults the opportunity to plan busy pre-New Year weeks so that they don’t turn into a continuous race, where there will be no time left for the family. After all, you can put the following “tasks for yourself” in the pockets of the advent calendar: watch a movie on a New Year’s theme; ; cut out snowflakes and decorate the house with them.

New Year's crafts

If you are going to make Christmas tree decorations with your own hands, decorate the house and make New Year's gifts, also include this in the advent calendar. Just duplicate the selected date in your diary to prepare everything you need for creativity in advance.

Decorations for the street. Make ice ornaments that can be hung on trees in your yard or playground. In flat forms, freeze colored water or natural materials, confetti, orange, lemon slices or artificial flowers. Dip the ends of a thread or rope into water so that frozen decorations can be hung on the branches. Try making ice garlands by passing one string through all the molds with water.

DIY gift paper. Invite your child to draw up paper in which you will then wrap New Year's gifts. To get beautiful patterns, use acrylic paint and simple ones. Small peas can be placed with a cotton swab, larger peas with a bottle cap. Make a ring-shaped imprint using a disposable cup or toilet paper roll. Give your child freedom - let him paint the paper the way he likes.

A traditional advent calendar lasts 24 days, but you can take any length of time, from 2 weeks to a month. Just start when you're ready.

Together with mom

The time of waiting for the New Year can also be made very cozy - thanks to such simple ideas that do not require costs - only attention to each other.

Day of compliments. Talk to each other only nice things all day long. Try to notice even small things and praise each other for them. Name 10 qualities that you love and appreciate most in each other.

Endless story. Start coming up with a story together in the morning. Continue it one by one, complementing each other’s story. If you like the story, be sure to write it down and make a book for which your child can draw illustrations himself. Also, the favorite main characters of your story can be molded from plasticine or sewn so that the child can play with them.

Good deeds

In anticipation of Christmas, it has always been customary to help the poor, share what you have, and participate in charity. This idea can be conveyed to the child through simple and enjoyable activities.

Make someone happy. For example, draw New Year's cards and give them to people with whom you often see, but are not closely acquainted: a saleswoman in a nearby store, a concierge at the entrance, an elderly neighbor in the stairwell. With an older child, you can take these cards and homemade gifts to a nursing home or hospital. Collect items and toys you don't use and donate to a charity.

for birds. Make feeders by cutting holes in a plastic bottle or milk carton. The resulting feeders can be painted with acrylic paints or pasted over with different materials. Hang them in the yard or on the way to kindergarten/school. Don't forget to add food to the feeders regularly.

So, for everyone who is planning to do something nice for their family and friends this year and stretch it out throughout December, I’ll show you my finds for the advent calendar. I repeat for those who missed the “first episode” that here we are talking about small gifts or tasks for the whole family for every day of December. These things need to be arranged in a beautiful calendar and then opened and unpacked every day in anticipation of Christmas or New Year.

Well, that is. in my opinion, you don’t have to be religious to simply adopt the good, beautiful tradition of gift-giving. Therefore, you can make such a calendar for the whole of December - 31 days, or only for 24 days before Catholic Christmas (if this holiday has acquired greater significance for you over time than the New Year). You can read about what Advent is and what things I made for it last time here: . (The link just leads to the “first episode”).

As you know, in order to get something successful and beautiful as an output, you need an input. In other words, our head needs information that can be digested, passed through the prism of our own consciousness, and only then get down to business.

Ideas for filling
For a December calendar with gifts, 2 things are important: appearance and content. As will be noticeable in the examples below, the appearance very often depends on the content. Therefore, first decide what your calendar will be filled with. Want some ideas? Please.

These can be small, penny trinkets (but here it is important to know whether the recipient loves such things or considers them rubbish);
- homemade cards with heartfelt wishes;
- write tasks for all family members every day that will enrich family life: for example, you can arrange a joint drawing, a walk around the city, a trip to the theater, exclusive shopping or a trip to the pool - something different every day!
- these can be large, full-fledged gifts - for children, toys, books, musical fairy tales, everything for creativity, and for adults some kind of perfume shoes, jewelry, stationery, etc.;
- pastries, chocolate and other culinary, daily surprises will also decorate your December (you can bake different types of cookies all month, and then beautifully pack many, many different bags of assorted cookies). Look, I already made sweet pastries for Advent.
- it can be one big gift, disassembled into 24 or more parts so that you can collect it every day and enjoy each new “spare part”;
- these could be parts of some kind of message that will be collected into one big one, or hints on where to look for gifts in the house;
- these could be parts of a large Lego construction set that needs to be assembled and at the end of December an entire city will be built from individual parts;
- hide exclusively thematic things in gifts: for example, everything for a loved one’s hobby, everything for a vacation, everything for development or an old cherished dream. If these are big gifts, hide them in the house, and place a treasure map in your calendar :-)
- this could be a quest, thanks to which all month long some objects or clues will be collected, from which you will need to guess what it is about.

In the comments to last year’s post about advent calendars natalyon shared her list of tasks for adults. She had two types of them - some were purely household (buy and put up a Christmas tree, go shopping for food for the holiday table, hang light bulbs around the house), and some were entertaining:
- make a selection of old Christmas movies for the holidays
- buy tangerines and enjoy eating them all evening
- send postcards by mail
- go out to dinner somewhere you've never been before
- buy some exotic food in the store that you have never tried
- take family portraits (a fun task, but a very long one, two hours fly by unnoticed while running between tripods and lenses)
- order pizza
- cut paper snowflakes
- have dinner at home by candlelight
- write a letter to yourself in the future
- remember and discuss everything important for the year
- play dominoes.

From the experience of past years, I also decided that I no longer want to buy a bunch of small gifts for either my child or my husband. For the child, this was generally too much, considering that at Christmas his relatives again filled him with gifts! As a result, all these things end up lying around, although last year I tried my best to make at least the gifts in the Advent calendar as useful as possible: brushes, paints, stamps, educational puzzles.

This year I decided to add surprises to useful trinkets like movie or theater tickets, trips to the skating rink or the Christmas market, joint movie nights with popcorn, evenings watching filmstrips and old photographs, or friendly baking of sweet buns.

And now more about the appearance.

1. For this calendar, you obviously need to prepare in advance in order to buy and eat so much canned food :-) Photos from here (there you will also find detailed instructions for creating such a canned calendar for December): adventskalender-basteln.me

2. If you have a beautiful corner with a randomly free bench :-), you can dump beautifully decorated gifts with a decorative slide like this. Photos from: www.thewhitecompany.com

3. If these are small gifts, tasks or wishes, they can be hidden in these stars made of craft paper, stitched on a sewing machine. Photos from here: 6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.de By the way, the next number is a link to a master class on how to make different elements this way.

4. Master class on making such a calendar at the link: adventskalender-basteln.me

5. Please note that here the gifts are attached to rings. The rug itself was clearly created specifically for Advent, because numbers are embroidered on it and these same rings are sewn on. Photos from: hverdags-lux.blogspot.de

6. White Christmas... Take a closer look at the photo. Here is clearly an example of gifts of an intellectual and physical nature :-) For example, the paper tubes in the upper right corner are clearly tasks or some kind of invitation tickets. Photos from: agiftwrappedlife.blogspot.de

8. Christmas tree-shaped calendar made from thick envelopes. Photos from: twoellie.com

9. This example is a repetition from last year from the blog of the German girl Valentina. She came up with this interesting design: she tied a basket to a paper lamp from Ikea, put a monkey in it, and instead of sandbags, her balloon received many colorful bags with small gifts. The numbers written on the stars are exactly the days from December 1 to 24, so that you know exactly what day you can open this or that bag.


raumdinge.blogspot.de

10. Boxes hanging on branches - why not a calendar? This is also from Valentina. She has instructions for the boxes in her posting at the link: raumdinge.blogspot.de

11. This is how you can arrange a chocolate calendar. Also from here: raumdinge.blogspot.de

12. A bunch of small gifts for every day, decorated in the same style. From here: raumdinge.blogspot.de.

13. Advent calendar, designed in the form of stylish bags with sweets and small gifts. From here: raumdinge.blogspot.de/2009/11/spezial-ad ventskalender-ide...

15. Calendar made of paper cups. Photos are also from Valentina’s blog: raumdinge.blogspot.de There are also a bunch of step-by-step instructions and templates for printing.

16. Calendar made of triangular boxes. Taken from www.bastelideen.info, here you can look at a lesson on how to make such a calendar, if anyone is interested: Lesson.

17. Fabric calendar. From here.

Advent calendar in the form of a cake

Advent calendar, in other words, holiday waiting calendar or advent calendar, takes its roots from distant Germany in 1908 (the first advent calendar was printed), which you can read more about in Wikipedia. Today, the traditions of waiting for the holiday have changed and advent calendars help bring more colors, joy and happiness into life. And this year I really want to start a new family tradition of magical anticipation of the New Year holidays. An advent calendar will help me with this, which is what this entire article is dedicated to!

An advent calendar for children is an opportunity to make every day of anticipation special, memorable, fulfilling and happy. After all, what could be more interesting than waking up in the morning and running to the next Advent day and discovering a surprise, task or gift there.

Selecting a holiday date

You should decide what date your advent calendar will be dedicated to. This could be Catholic Christmas - December 25, New Year - December 31, Orthodox Christmas - January 7, Old New Year - January 14.

In general, such a festive waiting calendar can be made for a birthday, and for dad’s arrival from a flight, and for a trip to the sea, etc.

It turns out that the number of digits can be different. We will be making a 31-day advent calendar to coincide with the anticipation of the new year. For small children, you can make a calendar for 7 or 10 days before the holiday.

Preparing an advent calendar

Of course, now you can buy anything in stores and ready-made advent calendars are no exception. But still, making a waiting calendar with your own hands is the best solution! Below you will find a lot of ideas for preparing an advent calendar - from the most complex to the most basic, which you can easily make, even in the most limited time. And the expenditure of your energy will undoubtedly be appreciated by your household.

An Advent calendar can be made from anything: paper, envelopes, fabric, jars and boxes, bags and baskets, bags and clothespins, socks, tights and mittens... In the house where a child lives, there is always paper, paints, scissors, glue - already This makes a wonderful advent calendar. After all, this is not an ordinary calendar and it can be constructed in the form of cones, envelopes, houses, snowmen, etc.

We are waiting for the holiday and developing with the advent calendar

When making a calendar, you have a great opportunity to think about it. What's on your agenda - colors, shapes, letters, counting? When you plan what kind of calendar to make, consider what knowledge you want to give your baby. So easy, fun and playful you can learn and reinforce the material. For example, use different geometric shapes in the calendar - one day - one shape - play, teach and repeat it throughout the day. You can do this with flowers and even letters! Well, counting comes naturally, we count the days, how much has gone and how much is left.

35 Best Advent Calendar Ideas

Gifts and tasks for the advent calendar

1. Sweets: candies, cookies, small chocolates, kinder surprise. After all, initially, in the tradition of the advent calendar, children were spoiled with small sweets - sweets or cookies.
2. Toys, books, hairpins and jewelry for girls, figurines of favorite characters. If your child is interested in dinosaurs, you can buy a set of dinosaurs and your child will find one a day. If a child is interested in construction sets, you can buy, for example, Lego, and every day the child will find a part of the construction set, and over time he will assemble the whole thing.
3. You can give your child tasks to prepare for the holiday, for example, make cards for relatives, write a letter to Santa Claus, wrap gifts, cut out snowflakes, paint windows, make, decorate a Christmas tree. And of course, the task must be accompanied by all materials for its successful completion. Depending on the age of the child, you help him to a greater or lesser extent.
4. For a change, you can have the child take out from an envelope (a bag, a cone, a jar - what your calendar is made of) a task-plan on how to find a gift. This could be a mini-map or a task to recite a poem and receive a gift, or an instruction hint in which direction to move towards the gift.
5. Look at what interesting events will be taking place in your city and be sure to give such a gift to your children one day. For example: tickets to a movie or theater, a New Year's performance, a dolphinarium, a planetarium, an exhibition of New Year's toys, or a trip to a master class in beading, drawing or dancing. Consider the child's interests.
6. Prepare several new cartoons for your child that he has not seen yet, and watch them together.
7. On the Advent day off, a gift could be a walk with the whole family to the park, where you can build a castle, a snowman, play snowballs and go sledding.

In general, think, use your imagination, rely on the tastes and priorities of your family. You have the opportunity to make cold winter days warmer, joyful, magical and happy! Let your advent calendar help you with this!

P.S. You can make an Advent calendar for both your husband and your loved one! For example, write (print out) various wishes and inspirational quotes. Place them in a bag or vase and take one leaf every day in the morning. Sometimes those “random” words you read become your direction for the whole day.

I wish you happiness!

Sincerely, Irina Kotulskaya

How to make an advent calendar for children + tasks and gift ideas

How to make a DIY advent calendar for children out of paper

What we need:

• office paper
• Printer
• pencils/markers
• scissors
• glue/tape

How to make a paper advent calendar:

1. First you need to print the advent calendar (download advent calendar templates). I found these templates on the Internet last year, saved them, and now the kids and I use them :) I print them out on A4 sheets.
2. Next, we give the sheets to the child so that he can color with pencils or felt-tip pens.
3. While the child is busy, we are busy cutting out pockets in which tasks and surprises for the child will be placed every day (as I said above, we still have these pockets after the New Year for passing surprises and letters to each other).
4. After the child has colored the advent calendar, we attach the “New Year’s Mail” mailbox pocket to it.
5. And now all that remains is to glue our advent calendar to the wall.

That's all, a simple DIY advent calendar for children made from paper is ready. Easy and fast :) And most importantly, a child took part in its production). Below I will show a photo of the advent calendar (higher quality templates can be downloaded for free from the link above).

Advent calendar activities for children

And of course, what would an Advent calendar be without tasks and sweets? Below I will write examples of tasks for the advent calendar. I would be grateful if you add to this list in the comments. It is interesting to diversify the assignments every year. so that the anticipation of the new year will be interesting.

1. Learn a poem for Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden for the matinee. Well, of course, no New Year is complete without a Christmas tree, Santa Claus and a New Year's poem. So this task is a must in the advent calendar. Examples of small and easy-to-remember poems can be viewed. And in I described our secrets, how my children and I quickly and easily remember poems.
2. Decorate the Christmas tree. The main decoration of the New Year's house :)
3. We decorate the apartment. You can see ideas on how to decorate your apartment for the New Year).
4. Make a New Year's garland chain. Remember what we did as children in anticipation of the New Year? Now you can create such a garland with your children and decorate your apartment. I wrote how we made it
5. Make ice toys for the Christmas tree. Of course, such toys are suitable for an outdoor Christmas tree. Last year we decorated the Christmas tree near the house with ice toys, this year we decorated the territory of our group in kindergarten (we did this last Sunday). I described how we created these toys
6. Make colored ice balls with the kids. Oooh, this is another interesting decoration for the street. We painted the area near the house with these balls. The yard has been transformed :) By the way, to decorate the territory of our group in the garden we also used such balls. See how to make them
7. Let's solve New Year's riddles. An interesting pastime for children and parents :) We look at examples of New Year's riddles for children with answers
8. Make a New Year's applique with your baby. For example, a simple Christmas tree applique
9. Draw a New Year's drawing.
10. Make a Christmas tree toy out of paper. ()
11. Write a letter to Santa Claus.
12. To make a snowman.
13. Build a slide
14. Play in the snow.
15. Go downhill on ice skates/sleds
16. Make Santa Claus and a Christmas tree. plasticine snow maiden
17. Decorating the windows
18. Make New Year's soap
19. Cut out snowflakes
20. Watch the New Year's cartoon
21. Write congratulations to your grandparents, if they do not live with you, make a postcard with your own hands
22. Draw or make a gift for parents, brothers, sisters. grandparents
23. Together with your parents, buy New Year's toys and decorations for the apartment
24. Color a New Year's coloring book (there are many coloring pages in)
25. We sing New Year's songs and learn new ones
26. Making New Year's toys from salt dough
27. Making a bird feeder (my children and I made a simple bird feeder from scrap materials)
28. Make a New Year's newspaper
29. Try on / choose a New Year's costume
30. Go to a New Year's party
31. Make a gingerbread house or Christmas cookies
32. Reading New Year's fairy tales
33. Take a walk through the city at night, glowing with New Year's lights

New Year Gift Ideas for the Advent Calendar

Along with the task, your child will be interested in receiving a small New Year's gift in the pocket of the advent calendar. Here are just some examples of what you can put there (if the gift is large, then you can put a note-card in the pocket where the gift is in the apartment and let the baby try to find it):

1. New Year stickers,
2. candies in the shape of Christmas tree decorations,
3. chocolate Santa Clauses and Snow Maidens
4. small New Year cards for congratulating friends
5. symbols of the coming year
6. chocolate medals or “Best Son” or Daughter medal printed on cardboard
7. tinsel and rain to decorate the apartment for the holiday
8. New Year's garlands
9. coins with symbols of the new year or Sochi 2014
10. artificial snow can
11. books
12. curly gingerbread
13. small chocolates
14. hairpins and elastic bands for girls
15. small cars
16. transparent cone with sweets: nuts or raisins
17. tickets for the New Year's performance
18. photos on a mug or a puzzle from a photo
19. tangerines with drawn emoticons.

DIY Advent Calendar Ideas for Kids

Below I will share with you some advent calendar ideas. which can be done for children. after all, no one says that there should be only one advent calendar)

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