The 2012 edition of the Fishbowl Family Advent Calendar >> a peek inside the fishbowl

27 Nov, 2012

The 2012 edition of the Fishbowl Family Advent Calendar

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy

a.k.a. 25 days of Christmas

Here we are again! Fa la la la laaaaa! I can’t believe it either. Is it really almost December?

Allow me to summarize this annual activity for newbies that may be reading along.

Once upon a time, instead of buying chocolate advent calendars for our young daughters I decided it would be more interesting to plan one Christmas-related activity every day throughout the month of December. No chocolate, no shopping, and no cheap gifts — just family time — a mix of big activities and small. We call it our Family Advent calendar, and it’s essentially 25 small envelopes with written messages inside them, and it’s become a very major holiday tradition here at Casa Fishbowl

You can read more about how to make your own advent calendar, get some ideas about some activities to do, and read more about why this has been such an awesome family tradition over on a past post I wrote about it here.

Last year I pared it down to 12 days but we talked about it this year and the girls told me they want to go back to the full 25 so I am rejigging my list to include more tween-friendly activities. (I’m still working on that part, but if you’re on Pinterest you might be interested to see my Family Advent board if you’re looking for some ideas.)

If anything, our Family Advent Calendar has been a great way to keep me organized, and encourages us to celebrate a quieter side of Christmas that sometimes seems to be losing out to the frantic spendy side of things.

I know a lot of you also do a variant of the Family Advent, and I always love to hear about your own traditions and see what you’re doing. If you’re tweeting about it please tag your tweets with #familyadvent so I can see what you’re up to!

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