Growing up, every year on Christmas Eve, my family and I would all pile into the family wagon and we would drive around enjoying the delights of the neighborhood Christmas lights. We had several stops that were “must sees” houses one of which we called the “Bug House”. I loved this house. The entire house and yard were covered in lights that blinked making it look like there were bugs crawling all over the house. We loved staring at the house and then closing our eyes to find we could still see the house and lights.
As a Parent now I want my son to have memories like this that he holds close to his heart to share with his children. We don’t drive around every year as I did with my family, but the effort of creating traditions is still there. This is the first year my son has really taken notice of the festivities that come with Christmas time, and it is proving to make this year that much more exciting for me.
One of the activities of this time that has provided me with ongoing excitement is that of our Advent Calendar. The idea of an Advent calendar is amazing. Creating all that excitement for the upcoming day, but really there are only so many things you can do with the calendar that isn’t expected.
There is the traditional candy that can be put into each day of the calendar, but with all the goodies and treats that come with this time of the year do we really need more candy?
Than there is the option of tiny ornaments that you can put into the calendars along with the candy or even putting coins in the place.
This year I racked my brain to think outside the box on what I could do that would provide ongoing excitement for not only my son, but myself as well.
The solution I came up with? Legos!
I decided to go with a smallish Lego kit. I picked a kit that would give enough pieces for the calendar and since I was spreading the pieces out over two calendars. I than went through the kit taking out the pieces in order of the instructions and putting a couple pieces at a time into each day.
The idea is that each day you and your child with go to the day and take the pieces made available and put them together according to the instructions.
Over the course of the month you will build the kit together and really it is just fun.
As we are only days away from Christmas I wanted to share the success I have had with this project. My son looks forward to doing the calendar everyday with me and wants to see what it is that he is building. Amazingly he doesn’t get all mad that we aren’t building it all at once and has fun with it.
I definitely will be doing this again next year and most likely going forward. This is going to be a tradition I hope that he continues on with his kids.
(photo of my niece with Lego made with calendar)
What is one of your favorite family traditions during this time of the year?