WIGINTON HOLIDAY CALENDAR

I have a list of non-negotiables that take the cake over other daily things. One of those is family traditions!  For the Wiginton family, we all know what happens when Thanksgiving is over…the holiday season is about to burst wide open full of actives and memories to be had in this home!

Many of you know that during the month of December, our family does a lot of activities and many of you have already reached out to me in the last few weeks asking questions because you want to do something too!  Yayyyy!  Helping other families create their own memories is exactly why I share.  To me, there’s nothing more important than being able to look back and remember joy and happy memories.  Not perfection.  Happy memories!

A few years ago I was away from my family for a brief season.  When I came home I was so thankful for every moment with my family I decided to come up with traditions we would start in our family on every holiday.  We love Christmas so much that this is what I came up with for Christmas!

I did nothing today except finalize our family holiday calendar until I was finished.  I will now create a shopping list for all the items we’ll need throughout the month and purchase it all at once so it’s all ready on those busy week days.  One day of hustle gives us a month of memories!

I want to help you make your own calendar and have fun!  Your kiddos will love it!  This IS the best thing ever in our family!  The holiday calendar also includes an envelope to be opened each day.  The kids love this because it’s kinda like opening presents early.  The idea came to me a few years ago and let me briefly explain WHY we do this.

We love the holidays.  (Like, really really love it.)  We used to be so sad when it was all over.  It always seems like it’s over in a snap and we’re left like…wait what happened here?

I am really big on soaking up every last drop in every single day that way each day feels like it’s been given it’s chance to live out it’s purpose.  I do not like feeling as if a day has been wasted.  I took this concept and intertwined it into a holiday calendar.

We give ourselves something to do ON PURPOSE everyday in December.  It forces us to celebrate and focus on what’s important to us, and once Christmas is over we truly feel like we’ve experienced Christmas!  This is very important to us and in the month of December it does take priority over pretty much anything.  We are super busy all year long, as all families are, and we know that once December comes, we force ourselves to make family time a priority to help us refocus, refresh and truly enjoy what’s most important.  (To help encourage this kind of family break, I made a summer calendar as well in June.  So, twice a year we have intentional family time to keep us balanced.) 

This calendar can be as detailed as you want or as simple as you want.  Please do not dismiss this family fun  because you don’t think you have time or aren’t creative enough.  YOU CAN!  I’ll show you how.  Your family will enjoy this so so much and I promise you they will wake up everyday ready to see what activity is planned.

Make a list of anything you would like your family to do in December. 

• Small things
• Big things
• Movies your family watches in December
• Activities you have done or would like to do (thank you Pinterest!)
• Scan your local community calendar
• Don’t forget to scan your child’s school calendar as well so you don’t plan a movie night on a school program or something similar
• Find an advent calendar to incorporate.  (Here is the one we’re using this year!)

• Here are some of our family favorites we’ve used in previous years:
• Christmas Mad Libs (I find mine by our good friend Google)
• Love letters (we draw names and secretly write a love letter to a family member. We write why we love them, why we are thankful for them, and what is something they do that makes you love them so much.)
• Visit Santa in town
• Write a letter to Santa
• Read Christmas books
• Board game night
• Make hot chocolate
• Make homemade Christmas cards and mail them out
• Make paper snowflakes
• Make play “snow”
• Wii game tournament
• Make gingerbread houses
• Christmas scavenger hunt
• Work on a Christmas puzzle
• Make Christmas punch (2 cups orange juice, 2 cups cranberry juice, 1 cup pineapple juice, 1 cup ginger-ale)
• Pizza night
• Christmas movie night // here is a list of our favorites
• Pair a movie themed snack with the movie you’re watching! Here are some we’ve done:
  • Reindeer cookies while watching Prancer
  • Grinch popcorn while watching The Grinch
  • Hot chocolate bar while watching The Polar Express
  • Cheese pizza while watching Home Alone

Pinterest is our best friend, Mamas!  Search “Christmas snacks” or “Christmas activities” and write a few down.  Make this your own and do not stress about the details too much.  This is meant to be a wonderful memory for your family!

Next thing we need to do is print a blank calendar.  I made one real quick to make it easy for ya!  Click here.

Start penciling in your ideas.  Here are a few tips:

• You do not need to bombard a day with activities to make it successful.  One simple activity is enough!  If you’re like our family, our regular daily schedule is full already so we can’t overload.  That causes stress which totally defeats the purpose.
• Save your bigger activities for the weekend.  (We have a movie night basically every Friday or Saturday and pair it with an activity that matches the movie.)
• Mad Libs are super quick and fun if you will be traveling. (When my boys played hockey I sent them with their envelope when they got on the road and inside was a blank Mad Lib.)
• Give yourself permission to edit as necessary!
• Give yourself permission to decide you can only do a few things during the month!  You do not have to pencil something in every single day.

Once I am done penciling in my activities, I write them out on index cards.  Make sure the date is on the card as well to prevent confusion.  Once my cards are done I put them inside a Dollar Store envelope and write the date on the front so my kids know which envelope to open that day.  It will look like this.

The date is wrote on each envelope and to keep fights at a minimum, I delegate who is opening each envelope.  Works like a charm!  Our calendar goes from December 1st thru December 25th.  (We end on Christmas day because that’s when I begin planning our New Years Eve party.)

I will tell you that the thing I hear my children comment on the most once December is approaching is they can’t wait for the holiday calendar.  It really does have an impact.  Maybe this year you can only commit to a few days in the month.  That’s ok!  Maybe you can only commit to Fridays.  Awesome!  I promise, your family will enjoy it so much.  Start making notes on those pins you have on Pinterest and see how it goes for you.  There is no right way.  There is your way, and your way is perfect.

Please comment below if you plan on doing a holiday calendar this year.  I would love to hear how it goes!  Share your ideas, tips and tricks!  I love learning!

Blessings!  xoxo