Comments on: The most wonderful time of the year: My 2018 Holiday Fun List https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/ Writer, Author, Speaker Mon, 19 Nov 2018 18:19:53 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: ARC https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47295 Mon, 19 Nov 2018 18:19:53 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47295 I was just thinking that I could maybe get another year out of the picture book Advent tradition, but I didn’t want to buy any new picture books for my girls as they are not reading them anymore. So I think we’ll do a “togetherness activity” advent countdown – I’ll make a bunch of cards in envelopes with an activity for the day – read from a couple of holiday chapter books, play games, drink hot cocoa by the fire, go outside to look at stars, etc. I should probably start getting that list together 🙂

]]> By: Anne https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47224 Sat, 17 Nov 2018 02:12:23 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47224 In reply to Irena.

What a fun way to celebrate the holidays. I love this idea!

]]> By: Irena https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47208 Fri, 16 Nov 2018 14:13:50 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47208 I can relate to your December magazines’ reading activity – I always take an afternoon off sometime in December, while the kids are at school, and spend it in Barnes & Nobles reading all those colorful magazines, and treating myself to lunch, coffee and dessert there! I am soo looking forward to this every year!

]]> By: Gillian https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47159 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 11:56:32 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47159 We do an activity Advent calendar with our kids (ages 11, 8, 5, 3). It takes some planning, but I enjoy it. Many things on it are things we would do anyway and they just have to go into the right spot on the advent calendar (visit santa, see the nutcracker, bake Christmas cookies). Many are really simple and can be done with our Au Pair (write a letter to santa, read a Christmas book at bedtime). Some are my way of getting my kids to think of someone other than themselves (make a donation to charity, choose 2 toys to give away). Some are ways to feel cozy when it is dark from 4:30p.m.-7:30 am (light candles at dinner, have hot chocolate at breakfast). This will be our third year doing this and I really enjoy it and I think the kids do to. Also key I keep a few super easy ones and if I realize the next day’s activity isn’t going to work after all (go look at Christmas lights but it is blizzarding) I can sub something in after to the kiddos go to bed and they are none the wiser.

]]> By: Barbara Pickett https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47130 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:01:26 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47130 In reply to Laura Vanderkam.

If you are looking for something which highlights Jesus’s Christmas story I highly recommend “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” where an unlikely group of children learns about the meaning of Christmas for the first time and make the Christmas Pageant ever more meaningful.

]]> By: Barbara Pickett https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47128 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 23:54:39 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47128 In reply to BethC..

Celebrating my birthday is also on my 2018 Holiday Fun List. My birthday is on December 23, 2018. My husband, David, and I will go out to dinner on that day. We do not have children. Seasons 52 is a possibility! I love their food. They do their menus by season so I think my birthday will be on the Winter Menu!

We have many Holiday Concerts: A Christmas Cantata at Church done by our Chancel Choir and David is in a Community Choir. They will do three Holiday Concerts, two at churches and one at a nursing home. It is always fun to hear the Cantores Community Choir.

I hope your family has Happy Holidays. I always like hearing your Podcasts even though I do not intend on having children.

]]> By: BethC. https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47126 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 22:04:09 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47126 I LOVE that you are a collector of holiday magazines-I have been doing the same thing for years. Sad to see that some of my old favorites have disappeared.

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47121 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:56:37 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47121 In reply to Anna.

@Anna – well, the Grinch is always a favorite. I kind of like Cranberry Christmas. Richard Scarry’s The Night Before The Night Before Christmas. Polar Express. How Santa Got His Job. The Wild Christmas Reindeer (but mostly for the illustrations). Who’s That Knocking On Christmas Eve? (also a Jan Brett one). Joy to the World (the 3-story Tomie dePaola — spelling? I’m butchering that but typing this on the fly). Christmas Farm. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree – though that’s a bit of a tear jerker! And of course, A Christmas Carol.

I welcome suggestions of others! I read through the Little House treasury last year and mostly enjoyed it.

]]> By: Anna https://lauravanderkam.com/2018/11/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-my-2018-holiday-fun-list/#comment-47115 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 18:31:04 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=17025#comment-47115 I would love to know what some of your favorite Christmas kids’ books are.

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