The Impromptu Advent Calendar

Those who know me will know. Those who don’t, let me tell you: I don’t craft.

I barely have the patience to sew a button.

Casually bumping into a fellow mummy at the café, we end up having an impromptu discussion about Christmas and home made decorations.

I bragged about how as a family, we managed by mysterious feat to make a successful trip to Westfield.  Albeit a tantrum or ten, not only a tree and its ornaments was purchased but also a North Pole Express Train set to boot!

How about that?  Mr and Mrs Scrooge teach their kids the spirit of Christmas.

Sipping on cappuccinos, basking in the summer sun, somehow the random topic of advent calendars surfaced.

“Oh check out this one! Oh, how cute is this???” my friend swoons, swiping through the endless Pinterest photos on her phone.

This is where it needs to be stated why I hate Pinterest: It gets you in trouble.

In an attempt to make polite conversation, I pretended to also marvel at all the Christmas decorations

“Oh yeah…Very cool! We should do that one…” my friend hears me say.

But somehow misses out on the rest of the sentence: “Next year”

In a frenzied confusion, I somehow found myself volunteering to do some “research” on advent activities and agree to collaborate efforts later that afternoon.

And because it appears there are those out there who were just as surprised that I actually stuck it out and accomplished a crafty project, for ground breaking proof, here are the details of what we used and the activities we came up with.

Materials:

• 3 large pieces of cardboard paper (1 dark green, 1 lighter green, 1 black)
• Roughly 8 pieces of white A4 paper
• Glittery sticky paper (in assorted colours)
• Sticky labels
• Black marker pen
• PVC glue
• A glue gun (optional)
• Scissors
• Cellotape
• Glittery pieces or stickers

What to do:

• Cut cardboard pieces in half and then cut them into “semi triangles” (in the shape of mountains with a flat plateau, if that makes sense)
• Cut A4 white paper from the middle to make continuous semi circle shapes
• Place cardboard pieces with a slight overlap to create a tree shape then stick together with PVC glue
• Place white paper on the bottom edge of each cardboard paper and glue (an entire piece won’t cover the whole edge so you’ll need to overlap 2 pieces across)
• Cut out black cardboard into a square to make trunk for the tree and glue
• Type up numbers 1 to 31 and then activities on computer, pick a festive font then print on sticky labels
• Cut up numbers and activities separately
• Stick numbers on glittery paper then stick activities on the back
• For number 25, make special star shape with glittery paper and paste on top of the tree
• Use double adhesive tape on the back of all the other activities then stick on tree
• (Note, approximately 8 activities fit to each cardboard piece)
• Add glitter, glittery stickers and decorations
• To give the tree “a spine”, place cellotape from the top to the bottom of the tree in one long strip. Do 2 extra strips if necessary.

Some Advent Activities for almost 4 year old boys:

• Get a Christmas Tree
• Play with Christmas Tree!
• Share your Christmas Tree with a friend
• Visit a friend’s Christmas Tree
• Call Grandma/Oma/Opung to see what they want for Christmas
• Christmas Carol DANCE PARTY!
• Go to the beach and take photos with Santa hats
• Make Christmas Cards
• Scooter ride around neighbourhood while wearing Christmas hats and t-shirts
• Make a Christmas video
• Join in community Christmas Carols sing-a-long
• Make Christmas lanterns
• Watch Octonauts Christmas Special Episode
• Bake Octonauts Christmas Fish Biscuits
• Go for a drive around neighbourhood looking for Christmas lights
• Choose a special toy to give away to a charity
• Practice a Christmas Carol
• Learn how to say “Merry Christmas” in another language
• Watch a Christmas DVD
• Attend Day Care Christmas Party
• Make a popcorn wreath for the Christmas tree
• Wrap Christmas presents
• Go for another drive looking for Christmas lights
• Open 1 present before bedtime
• CHRISTMAS DAY! Open presents! Make phone calls!
• Put away wrapping paper and boxes from presents
• Read a new book that you received for Christmas
• Make thank you cards

Notice how Octonauts plays a big part of the celebrations? Ahems.

As you can see, not only have I “crafted” against my will, I am now committed to a whole array of activities with my twinions who already suck every ounce of my energy.

All thanks to one random coffee conversation.

Good thing I have all of 2014 to recover.

Are you a crafty mummy? Have you succumbed to a Christmas project against your will?  Are your little ones Octonauts obsessed???

Disclaimer:

I am not, repeat, NOT a crafty blogger. No responsibility will be taken if the instructions do not make sense and your tree falls to pieces