Just before Thanksgiving each year, our family prints out the following Christmas countdown calendar and posts it on our bulletin board. On it are all the different activities and events we’ve enjoyed during Christmases past.

The children helped me generate the original countdown list years ago, and we continue to add to it as we discover new traditions we want to make a part of our family’s holiday celebrations.

The list reminds us to enjoy small, simple pleasures, as these are the things that make this time of year so memorable for our little ones. We don’t try to do everything on our bucket list — that’s not the point — we just pick and choose those activities that appeal to us or fit our schedules this year.

Try making a “Countdown to Christmas” with your own family this year. You can use our list or compile one of your own!

Simple Ways to Celebrate the Season

take family photo for Christmas cards
hang house lights
put Christmas music in speaker system/ cars
wrap/unwrap/read 25 books before Christmas
Christmas card assembly line: work together
make Candy Kiss Christmas Chains
decorate Christmas tree(s)
host shoebox stuffing party for “Operation Christmas Child”
re-read old Christmas letters aloud
read Family Devotions for Advent Season
review Luke 2 and quote from memory
watch It’s a Wonderful Life
ring bell for Salvation Army
read Dicken’s Christmas Stories
make hot cocoa
visit Christmas tree farm/ buy clippings
have birthday party for Jesus
read/ watch The Gift of the Magi
make thank-you gifts for pastors/teachers
watch Little Drummer Boy
play Christmas Charades
read/watch A Christmas Carol
read/watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
sing carols around the fire
read The First Night
have family Christmas piano recital
make fantasy fudge
watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
take pumpkin or banana nut bread to neighbors
read Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree
make Christmas ornaments or crafts
give baking to mail-carrier/garbage men
drive around to look at lights
string popcorn/cranberries for outside tree
make gingerbread house
take coffee/donations to bell ringers
watch/read Little House Christmas
visit a drive-through or walk-through Nativity at a local church
make cathedral window cookies
take cookies to girls in Dad’s office
sing/ play instruments for church program
watch Frosty the Snowman
listen to/ sing along with Handel’s Messiah
attend home school Christmas party
watch Elf
make sausage balls
work Twelve Days of Christmas jigsaw puzzle
bake Christmas cookies
make s’mores in drive-way; invite neighbors?
watch White Christmas
shop at a local church or school holiday craft fair
see The Nutcracker ballet at community college
watch Miracle on 34th Street (old version)
jog in Rudolph Family Fun Run
go ice-skating
go Christmas caroling
play Christmas party games as family
act out Christmas story with little ones
attend Emerald Ball with teens
tell Christmas story with advent gift boxes
watch Star of Bethlehem
drink hot apple cider
make/buy sibling stocking stuffers
take kids Christmas shopping (for others)
visit Six Flags Holiday in the Park
eat traditional Christmas breakfast
think/pray about/ make New Year’s resolutions

To print a plain-text version of our original list, follow this link. For a prettier, updated version of our “Countdown to Christmas,” just click on the image below: