Counting down to Christmas

For the last couple of years we've been away in the run up to Christmas, and before that, Harry was too little really to understand what was going on. It's different this year now that he has started school - they even started rehearsals for the Christmas play as soon as he came back after half-term - and he is well aware of an exciting event not far off.

I love the countdown to Christmas, and we have ended up with a few ways of marking it. A few years ago we bought a wooden Advent calendar, and I wrote a blog post which has ended up being very popular, full of ideas for things to fill a wooden Advent calendar. This year I'm going to keep it simple I think with just a couple of chocolates in each box.

Last year we also made our own simple homemade Advent calendar which was a lot of fun to make and it will be used again this year.

We also have a couple of Playmobil Advent calendars this year which are something new to us, having stocked up in the sales after Christmas last year. They aren't cheap, but it looks as though you do get a decent amount of Playmobil to play with.

Another Advent tradition that we are starting this year is the Elf on the Shelf. This is something that I've picked up on from Pinterest and it looks like a lot of fun. A little Elf comes to stay with you in the run up to Christmas, and every night he flies back to the North Pole to report back to Father Christmas. When he returns he is hidden in a different place every morning, and the children have to find him. People come up with some really creative ways to entertain their children by setting up their Elf in all sorts of scenarios. I'm looking forward to getting started with it, and I hope that the children aren't too freaked out by it all, admittedly the Elf doll is rather creepy!