How many "extra" activities do you have?

[shopping4my3son]

We have St. Nick, the night of December 5th.

Never did Elf on a Shelf.

Last year my kids had the Lego Advent Calendars. Those were kind of pricy so I'm not sure we will do that again.

I have a Christmas Pickle ornament from the exchange here so the kids have been interested in that.

We always visit Santa.

Try to make it to a parade.

I have my kids pick from an Angel Tree a child close to their age and let them shop for that child.

I only send out a few Christmas cards.

 

 

Sometimes I think there are too many extras and everyone gets worn out before Christmas even gets here.

[berry1014]

We dont have the Elf on the Shelf but we do have 2 plush elves that visit every Dec 1st to Dec 23rd.

Thing we do during Dec:

Christmas Parade

Pictures with Santa

Donate (toys for tots this year)

Go driving around looking at Lights (usually 2 - 3 different nights)

A lot of cookie baking

Build Ginger Bread House

make Christmas ornaments or picture frames to be given as gifts to Grandparents. aunts, uncles, etc

Watch Christmas movies/specials as a family

[wittenlover]

I'm solo in my house, so my extra activity is baking... LOTS of baking (upwards of 60 lbs of stuff last year)... Cookies, brownies, and breads... Then many batches of fudge... Then I pack and ship to friends and family all over the country. My version of Christmas gifts. Always well received. I do occasionally take a trip out to enjoy the lights. Oh and I also plan and run my church's NYE party every year, but I do all that pretty much after Christmas.

[nikkilugi]

I always have good intentions to do stuff but life gets in the way with all of our "regular" kid activities.

 

We usually go to the school holiday singers program at the local Barnes and Noble - the school uses it as a fundraiser too.

We put up our own Christmas light display - our house is totally National Lampoons and I am the woman version of Clark Griswald.

 

I am toying with buying one of those Groupon's this year for a Holiday light tour in a limo.  My daughter would totally freak out as she has been wanting to ride in a limo.  We live in the KC area so we have tons of formal light options like the Plaza and the Longview Lake Christmas display.  

 

The City Market does a "Whoville" Christmas with the Grinch - that sound like such fun so I hope to be able to get the kids there too.  

 

The problem with Kansas City is that living in the suburbs means that everything is at least 30 minutes away in this spread out city, lol.  Gets to be a pain when at least an hour of driving (round trip) and the gas has to be figured in to our activities.  

[shopping4my3son]

I almost forgot we bought tickets to go see the play A Christmas Story this year. Only a couple weeks away. My husband use to do a big animated display but now just does lots of lights. He's helping at a local park this year that does a drive through display. We always go there. Now I only have one kid left in elementary school so only one Christmas concert to go to.

[Bopeep]

We bake and ice a LOT of cookies, and make candies for treat trays.  Other than that, there aren't a lot of extras anymore. My kids are grown and starting their own "extras" with their children . 

[jade2002]

We never did elf on a shelf but now I wish we had when my kids were younger. I never knew about it until my kids were too old for it.

 

My now oldest went to see Santa for pictures once when he was younger. He cried and screamed bloody murder. Could never get him to go back. My youngest never even gave Santa a chance to begin with. They just never liked him, lol.

 

We do pick a child from the angel tree. Sometimes we take 2. I like to pick one that is older in age because they seem to get left until last and I like to make sure they get some nice name brand shoes or clothes. While name brand doesn't matter much to the smaller kids, I know to the older ones it does mean a little more to have some of what others are wearing.

 

I make tons of different candies to give out to friends and family. Not sure if I will this year though as it's very time consuming.

 

We use to go looks at Christmas lights but that's pretty much stopped too. My kids are about grown now(well one is for sure) and the other never wants to go anywhere with us, lol.

 

Shew, my kids are growing up and I'm getting old. Makes me sad.

[stevierocks]

with everyone growing up, it seems like the extras are actually cutting down.. other then one of the boys has dedicated himself to really do lights outside.. and we bought tons of lights last year so he would have them(several hundred dollars worth)... he made a whole plan with a diagram of what he is putting where..im excited about that as i use to decorate and have not done the lights outside fro several years now... so that will be nice.. and i never did anything close to what he plans.lol.

[jakesmommy403]

We kick it off by putting up a ridiculous amount of lights and officially lighting them on Thanksgiving.

Breakfast With Santa at a small local country dairy/restaurant that my mom works at

We take an evening and drive around our town looking at lights while listening to xmas music and drinking hot chocolate.

We visit Santa at the mall and then each pick out a new tree ornament at Target

Mom and I have Shopping Day and knock out all of her shopping and anything I need to finish, and we get breakfast/coffee/dinner

Cookie Baking Day with the kids a few days before christmas

 

 My older son isn't in chorus or band and now he's not in elementary school so we won't be going to a holiday concert for him.  My littlest guy is in Kindergarten though, so we'll go see his holiday program. We have the elf on the shelf guy but my kids never bought into it. One thought it was creepy and the other one knows that dolls can't move. My parents and I used to go downtown to see a Musical Christmas Carol every year, but last year we realized we'd gotten sick of it. We've also seen Holiday Pops, The Nutcracker, and TSO (worst show ever), so we're good on shows for a while and plan on skipping all of them this year.  We'll wait a few years until my kids want to go to those shows and then we'll start going again.  I think we all need a break from them. 

[SaBell]

TSO (worst show ever)

 

Why was it the worst show ever? I was going to get tickets and now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't.

[nikkilugi]

Why was it the worst show ever? I was going to get tickets and now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't.

I liked the TSO show we went to - it is fun and worth going at least once in your life

[jakesmommy403]

Why was it the worst show ever? I was going to get tickets and now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't.

 

Well, I would never knock anyone who enjoys the show, but I can give you my opinion. My parents had been wanting to go for years, so it was a big deal for them and they took me and both of my brothers. It was...weird. The first half of the show is holiday themed, I guess.  There's a hard-to-follow "story" that's actually narrated by some guy, and the more you try to make sense of it, the less it makes sense. They play the christmas songs you go to their show to see, but they're interspersed with strange renditions of other christmas songs.  Then the second half of the show isn't holiday themed at all and looks more like This Is Spinal Tap, with some computer animated tigers, castles, and dragons that look like they're from 1998.  Then they close out the show with Carol of the Bells, because you have to keep the butts in the seats somehow. (Carol of the Bells was AWESOME!) We stayed for the whole thing because my parents paid for our tickets, but people were leaving all through the show, especially during the second half.  I've never seen so many empty seats halfway through a show!  At one point one of the guitarists was playing out in the audience and there were people waiting politely for him to move so they could leave.  My poor parents; it was not what they expected at all.  But Carol of the Bells was awesome. 

[SaBell]

I liked the TSO show we went to - it is fun and worth going at least once in your life

 

 

Well, I would never knock anyone who enjoys the show, but I can give you my opinion. My parents had been wanting to go for years, so it was a big deal for them and they took me and both of my brothers. It was...weird. The first half of the show is holiday themed, I guess.  There's a hard-to-follow "story" that's actually narrated by some guy, and the more you try to make sense of it, the less it makes sense. They play the christmas songs you go to their show to see, but they're interspersed with strange renditions of other christmas songs.  Then the second half of the show isn't holiday themed at all and looks more like This Is Spinal Tap, with some computer animated tigers, castles, and dragons that look like they're from 1998.  Then they close out the show with Carol of the Bells, because you have to keep the butts in the seats somehow. (Carol of the Bells was AWESOME!) We stayed for the whole thing because my parents paid for our tickets, but people were leaving all through the show, especially during the second half.  I've never seen so many empty seats halfway through a show!  At one point one of the guitarists was playing out in the audience and there were people waiting politely for him to move so they could leave.  My poor parents; it was not what they expected at all.  But Carol of the Bells was awesome. 

Thanks for the input. I'm actually glad I waited because I found out that my husband bought tickets already. I was going to surprise him and instead he surprised me.

 

:holiday08 :holiday08 :holiday09

[jakesmommy403]

Thanks for the input. I'm actually glad I waited because I found out that my husband bought tickets already. I was going to surprise him and instead he surprised me.

 

  :holiday08 :holiday09

Aww!!!  That's so sweet!!  I'm sure you guys will have fun! 

[chilimak]

Our holiday extras include:

 

My husband's work Christmas party

 

Middle school holiday chorus concert

 

Middle school holiday band concert

 

Lots of cookie baking

 

Sending Christmas cards

 

Driving around looking at Christmas lights, usually 2 or 3 different times and areas.

 

We  have at least one or two Christmas Saturdays where the kids and I do Christmas stuff all day. We bake cookies, play Christmas monopoly, and watch Christmas movies.

 

Various Christmas related activities at our church: decorating our church, assembling food baskets for needy families, Children's holiday program.

 

I don't really consider all these things extras though. I have been doing them so long that they are all just part of our Christmas traditions.

 

 

We also have 3 birthdays in December. Me and 2 of my kids, so that keeps us busy too.

[LCPanther1975]

We also have December birthdays! Me, my husband, little sister, Father in Law, and brother in law!   

 

1. Take funny family photo for greeting cards

2. Watching several Christmas Movies in the weekends leading up to the big night!

3. Making candy for family (several items we only get at Christmas!)

4. Try to make it to look at Christmas lights around town

5.  We love college and NFL football, so we enjoy watching these games !

[starbeck96]

We don't really do a lot of extras.

We usually do the Angel Tree every year but it looks like this year will be missed It is very tight here this year and we are going to have a hard time just buying Christmas for our kids.

 

My daughter and I do try to do some extra baking. She has requested that we make Gingerbread men this year. Today we made handprint ornaments. Tomorrow we will paint them.

 

We will go to the Christmas parade.

 

If I can afford to have Netflix turned back on, watch some Christmas movies (we don't have cable) or borrow some from someone.

 

This is the first year that my daughter doesn't believe in Santa but I am hoping that I can talk her into sitting in his lap anyway

 

 

Oh we read the Christmas story each day during our school day (we homeschool). This year, my daughter can read well enough to actually read one day. We will also memorize a few verses from it as well.

 

We will probably also try to make some homemade Christmas gifts.

 

We don't do a lot of extras, but we try to make it memorable.

[shopping4my3son]

I'm thinking of picking up lottery tickets for my husband and I that resemble advent calendars. Last year I picked up ones that had 24 doors to open. I picked up 4 of them as stocking stuffers for myself, DH, mom, and oldest son. Those were $25 each, I think. Two of those were winners.

 

http://wilottery.com/files/InstantGames/images/490.31HollyDays.jpg

Edited November 17, 2014 by shopping4my3son

[onemill]

I wasn't sure what you meant by extras but now I know...So, I guess we do a lot.  We have Elf on a Shelf and do advent calendars for all 3 kids.  We watch the Polar Express DVD and have hot chocolate with it sometime around 12/23.  We eat fondue on Xmas Eve after candlelight service at church.  We make Xmas cookies and this year will bake enough for the neighbors, too.  I will be going to school holiday program for the kinder and maybe take her to see the holiday concert at the high school.  She and I will also go to the Nutcracker together because the teenage boys don't want to go.  We are going to ZooLights at the Zoo and also the ICE carved ice/ice slide exhibit at National Harbor.  We drive and look at a few lights shows in neighborhoods/areas.  We also play a game that we made up called "lights" where you get 1 point for every house with Xmas lights or lit Xmas tree that you see. We play this as I drive soccer carpool.  

 

And of course, we decorate the house with an Xmas village and a multitude of Xmas decorations inside and I might put lights up outside this year.  And get a tree and decorate it.  

 

Wow!  I am tired just looking at this list!