{ advent calendar FUN }

We began an Advent Calendar tradition last year...instead of the days being filled with candy & toys & trinkets...each day is a note or clues about an ACTIVITY we are going to do together as a family - skiing, sledding, volunteering at the local Food Bank, baking cookies together, making christmas tree ornaments going to see the Nutcracker, etc. So, its all about EXPERIENCES and time together vs. STUFF. You can see the calendar I made outlining each days activity here (click on the Dec. 08 calendar tab).

Need some Advent Calendar inspiration? Look at this lovely handmade advent calendar from Green Kitchen. Not so crafty? Garnet Hill has some great ones, as does etsy.

And if you need some more ideas of activities or things to include in your families advent calendar, click here.

{ simple christmas }

So with the holidays approaching, a new baby here and a newfound realization that less IS more, we have been talking about ways to reduce the commercialization of Christmas and make it a simple holiday here. We've also been inspired recently by this book.

Step 1. We sent out an email to all of our family & friends asking that they honor our desire to spend time with them but not exchange gifts this year in a attempt to simplify our lives. We sent it out in August BEFORE people went shopping! :-) Budget for the rest of the expenses. Check out Simple Mom's post today for some good ideas on holiday budgeting.

Step 2. Decide what we do want to buy & give (obviously we will get some meaningful gifts for Sam & Henry).
What we decided to do:
1) Continue our family advent calendar tradition like we did last year (and instead of candy or gifts, include a fun thing to do together each day - ice-skating, skiing, hot chocolate making, cookie making & delivery to neighbors, sledding, delivering food to the food bank, giving money to the homeless shelter, making snowflake pancakes for dinner, etc.) More on this later this fall.

2) We also decided that we would ask all of her grandparents for donations to their college fund instead of gifts. Most have been excited about doing this and relieved not to have to try to figure out what a 4 year old today wants.
3) We also decided that we were going to get her 7 good, meaningful gifts in addition to her stocking with the following categories/tags.

1 Need. Something that she needs. (eg. new ski boots)

1 Want. This is something that she wants - most likely a princess thing. :-)

1 Wear. A new dress.

1 Handmade. Something homemade for her. Not sure what this is going to be yet.

1 Read. A new book.

1 Create. An activity - like a set of new paints, etc.

1 from Santa. {We'll wait and see what she asks for!}

Step 3. Decide on celebrations, travel, company, etc.

We are still working out this part of the plan (with my parents here, Will's mom & brother in Boulder & Will's dad in Alaska, it is difficult to see everyone during Christmas). But with a new baby, we most likely will get a hall pass on traveling this holiday season (yipee) and be able to be HOME. I think we will try to plan a winter solstice celebration again this year. More on this later.

I hope this ideas help get you started thinking about the holiday season and ways to infuse it with simplicity, giving and meaning. So what are YOU going to do to simplify your holidays this year?