ADVENTure Dice - A Christmas Tradition

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For as long as I can remember, Christmas has been my favorite holiday! There is so much about Christmas time that I absolutely love! I’m not sure what it is, but there is just something magical in the air during this time of year. What I love most, is time spent with the ones I love, traditions, and making memories that last a lifetime!

It doesn’t seem that long ago when we started an advent calendar with our own kids. Not that long ago was at least six years ago!!! Our kids would have been 1, 3, and 5. I was feeling crafty and created a board with 25 envelope slots, for 25 fun ideas to do each day leading up to Christmas! I was on a roll, I came up with 15 ideas so fast. Then came the struggle…. I started googling different ideas to fill in the blanks. So many of the ideas were hard to do with the age my kids were. Not to mention, we live in the middle of no where, so some of the ideas were off the table! My brilliant husband had the idea of asking the kids what they would like to see on the calendar! You guys, looking back on the beginning years of our family advent calendar, still brings joy to my heart! Let me just tell you want some of these ideas our kids came up with were. Things like: just leave the house, help watch Reese (my youngest), wash the chairs, water the raspberry bushes., haha and so many others!

At first I thought, there was no way I was going to allow these silly ideas to make the calendar. We needed amazing, Christmas themed, BIG, fun ideas. But, I let go of my type A personality and we ran with it! Now, looking back on the pictures, they bring a huge smile to my face remembering how simple things were when they were younger and how simple was amazing in their young eyes! I couldn’t have been more wrong about what these activities needed to be. Because of their “silly” ideas, I think that is why this advent calendar has become such a huge staple in our household in December! (I think you’ll find it to be the same in yours! <3)

So fast-forward to today! The five of us in this house, look forward so much to our advent calendar every year that we wanted to bring it into each of your households! To do that, we created ADVENTure Dice! My oldest daughter came up with the name and I think she nailed it! We thought to help you out, we would give you some ideas to do with your new set of ADVENTure Dice! The following are all the activities on the dice and ideas, and how they became a thing:

1. Yes Day- Yep, you read that right! A day of allll yes’. You can’t say no! The important part to this one is, set a few ground rules. Examples are: travel radius, money allowed to spend, start and finish times, etc. Ready? Set. Have fun!!

2. Buy someone a coffee/tea- There’s always someone special that you can make their day with a simple coffee delivery! Teachers usually make the top of our list, but it definitely doesn’t stop there! You can also use this as a pay it forward situation!

3. Decorate Christmas cookies- This can be as simple as buying dough and frosting from the store OR more involved by making them from scratch OR using your grandma’s best recipes! Most importantly have fun together and make it your own! Whatever you decide, you have to leave something sweet for Santa! This one always is one of my personal favorite days, as my grandma always had the best Christmas cookies. And it does my soul good to use some of her recipes to make Christmas feel like she is still with us.

4. Candle Light Dinner- Get dressed up nice, light some candles, and enjoy a fun meal! Fancy dress also means fancy manners! Remember your please and thank yous! And don’t forget napkins! Sometimes things get a little more messy than normal eating in the dark!!

5. Christmas game night- find your favorite game or holiday game and get to playing! No time to waste here! If your looking for some ideas, our family had a blast playing these! When the kids were younger they loved The Santa Clause game! The kids also love monopoly, so I found this fun Christmas-opoly addition! We are also a family that loves playing cards, so I love having a holiday themed card deck around as well! This deck is my favorite! But I’m not going to lie, I think we might have to give this Grinch Clue set a go this year! My youngest is OBSESSED with the grinch!!! If I do find a new game, I always love to surprise the kids with it right before we play!

6. Make snowflakes- sit down and get creative making paper snowflakes! Each one is so unique and special! Either leave them white, or color them to your liking. Then the best part, snowflake bomb your house when you’re done! Hang them up wherever you want. Walls, windows, appliances, you name it! Regardless of where you hang them, it is always a fun reminder of the memories made through the holiday every time you see them! If you need a little guidance, this is a great video for simple snowflakes!

7. Visit someone special- take time to visit someone you’ve been meaning to visit. Or make it a special trip to visit someone in the nursing home or hospital. If you can’t make it to see them, call or video call someone who has been on your heart! I promise, this one fills everyone’s cup up!

8. Mystery Dinner- this one gets fun! Parents get to decide how to make this interesting for the kids! We have had the kids eat blindfolded, served them dinner backwards (started with dessert!), and made appetizers with mystery dipping sauces (we might have blindfolded them for this one too). But we can’t wait to hear the ways you get creative! This year I think we are going to have them use chopsticks!! And who knows, maybe we will blindfold them too just to make it even more interesting! Maybe these fun colored ones! Or these that have some texture… I’m not sure but maybe that will help us hang on and grab food better! haha!

9. Watch Christmas Movie- You can either watch your family’s favorite movie that you watch every year together or pick a new one! It’s always fun to add a snack related to the movie of choice! Get creative or keep it simple with good ol’ popcorn (add m&ms for the sweet lovers!).

10. Hot Chocolate with a candy cane- Is it really Christmas without candy canes!? Stir up the hot cup of chocolate with a candy cane to add that special holiday cheer. Don’t forget to add marshmallows!!! This is the perfect combo!

11. Sleepout by the Christmas tree- There is something so magical about getting cozy and admiring the Christmas tree as you fall asleep! Why not make a special night of it!

12. Drive around and look at Christmas lights- Have everyone load up (pjs are always a comfy option!) and pick a neighborhood to take a Christmas lights tour. Have fun picking your favorite! We always like to get a pizza to squeeze in dinner or take some hot cocoa on the go to make it a little extra special! One year we even got these fun glasses to spice up the lights even more!

Our family loves the element of surprise. So my husband and I plan out each one beforehand that way we can sneak in some surprises here and there to keep things fresh! For instance, while the kids know that game night and mystery dinner is on the list, they don’t know anything else until it’s happening! So, if you happen to see my kids around, please don’t spoil the new things on the list for this year!

We hope that you all enjoy these fun activities together as a family! One thing that hit me hard a few years ago was reading something that said, you only get 18 summers with your kids…. Wow… when you hear it like that, you really don’t have a lot of time. So, I’ll say it here. You only get 18 Christmas’ with each child before they move to their next stage of life and nothing is guaranteed then! Enjoy each ADVENTURE this ADVENT seasons and all those to come! Be sure to tag your pictures using #ADVENTuredice. Merry Christmas friends!

Are you ready for your own set?! Tried and tested, kid approved! Best holiday activities! Purchase your ADVENTure Dice here!