A few days ago I wrote about our Christmas Countdown that I wanted to do with C. Every day we open an envelope and do a little activity to celebrate Christmas in some way. I tried to vary the activities from reading, watching Christmas TV specials (you know the ones we grew up with!) and craft projects. I also tried to gear it toward my two-year old.

So far we are enjoying it. I told C the letters are from Santa and so every day we have to “see” what Santa is asking us to do and he gets very excited and loves to open each envelope. After it is open he usually runs around the house yelling that he opened the “new nvelope.”

Here is a breakdown of the tasks we’ve had so far and my rating (I decided to rate each task 1-5 stars (5 being the best) so that I know what to plan for next year.

Day 1: Make a Christmas Loop Chain for the Tree (I called it a countdown chain and made it 24 loops long, but so far we have not used it to countdown, maybe someday).

We started by cutting the paper: (I used Christmas-y scrapbook paper, but you can use whatever you want)

Then we made the loops: (This part was a bit hard for a two-year old, so I had to help)

Then we put the chain on the tree:

It was a fun activity and C really enjoyed this one. He liked to cut and make the loops, the making of the loops got a bit boring for him, so I tried to keep him involved by picking out what paper would be the next loop. He likes to see it on the tree now. I give this 4 stars and think that this would only improve with age.

Day 2: Watch Meet Me In St Louis

This is my all-time favorite movie and the origin of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” so I thought this would be a fitting time to introduce it to C. He enjoyed it, but played through most of it. He did like the songs. He proclaimed it to be his “favorite movie” but only after I told him it was mine, so that may have something to do with it.

4 stars – a definite keeper for next year!

Day 3: Make a paper village

I thought it would be fun to have C color and then I turn those pages into a little paper village.

He liked this part, sort of, he is into cutting things out, but this project was a bit too delicate for him, so he grew bored and tired of it quickly.

I have to give this 1 star – I need to find a slightly better pattern for the village houses before I attempt this again.

More to come as we work through more of Santa’s instructions!