Today is also the beginning of the 12 days of Christmas for 2012. Last year on my blog, I did "Twelve days of Christmas" posts, in which I shared each day about a memorable Christmas from my past. This year for the 12 days of Christmas on my blog, I want to talk about one activity per day that we do to celebrate Christmas in our home.
On the 1st day of Christmas: Advent Calendars
My kids love advent calendars. They love counting down the days until Christmas. Their favorite advent calendar is the disposable ones that have little doors on them for each day of the month, with a Christmas-shaped chocolate behind each open door. I try to buy 4 different designs so that they don't get confused as to whose is who's. A few years ago, they were all matching and I wrote the boys' initials at the top of their calendar, but Kanyon (who didn't know his letters at the time) ended up eating chocolates out of all 3 of the other boys' calendars. The boys all became emotionally distraught when they discovered what their youngest brother had done. They were even more upset to find out there would be no replacement for the stolen chocolates: when I went to buy more calendars to replace theirs, the stores were all sold out of them. We learned our lesson that year: never buy matching calendars again!
We also have a Nativity advent calendar that we've used for years. We received it from a secret santa the year that the twins were born, and I treasure that somebody thought of us to bring us such thoughtful goodies, including the calendar. Each day a character is taken out of the numbered boxes to add to the nativity scene at the top, always ending with the addition of baby Jesus on December 24.
I loved doing advent calendars when I was a kid, too. My favorite advent calendar was a Hallmark Around-the-World one from my youth. When I was a young child, my mom received it with a Christmas card. She laminated it, and we used it each year. One paper doll wearing a costume from another country was placed in the numbered slits on the wreath each day. I loved looking at all the different & colorful outfits from the varied countries. On the backside of each paper doll, there was explanations about unique customs from the country, too. My sisters and I had to take turns putting one person a day on the wreath, and I always hoped for the Mexico day--I loved the girl in the fancy red dress! On Christmas Eve, there was a Santa to place on the calendar. My mom has since thrown it away, and I've searched online, but only have found one {terrible quality} photo of what it looked like. I loved this advent calendar:
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