The Christmas Chain

In 2008, I started what I thought would be a fun, memorable Christmas tradition. My son and I made an old fashioned Christmas chain, one link for each of the 24 days of December leading up to Christmas. On each link I wrote an activity for the boys to do as we counted down to Christmas. The kids were excited, and all in all, it turned out to be pretty successful.


Last year I tried this again. We did some of the activities....Christmas lights, gingerbread house, the 18 hour reindeer cupcakes....but I'm pretty sure that there were still 10-12 links left hanging in the boys' room on Dec. 25. Not so successful.


This year I was debating whether or not to create the Christmas chain. It does not really thrill me to do things halfway.


Then my 4 yo started having meltdowns everywhere he went - preschool, Sunday school, kid's church, etc. When his preschool teacher talked to him about what was upsetting him, he mentioned Christmas and not being able to wait. She told him she was SURE his mom would be doing some things with him to get ready for Christmas and make waiting easier.


Break out the construction paper.

The chains are made.

Chains (plural) - because, of course, each child had to have their own. They give a beautiful finishing touch to the "Blessing Tree" - a.k.a. the tree in the corner filled with pictures of my children glued to tin can lids and puzzle pieces (the pictures are glued, not the children).

Here's the current status on the chain:

*Dec. 1 - "Make Snowflakes To Decorate Bedroom Window" - Snowflakes are made, still sitting on the kitchen counter.

*Dec. 2 - "Make Christmas Placemats" - My 4 year old got very into this. His is super cute. My 8 yo chose to play the wii and wanted to 'do it later'. Later has not yet occurred.

*Dec. 3 - "Frost Christmas Cookies" - Much more fun to eat than frost!

*Dec. 4 - "Watch a Christmas Movie" - I was shopping all weekend with friends, so I thought this would be easy for my husband. My oldest child insisted we needed to watch one as a family for it to 'count'. Sounds like passive-aggressive let's-punish-mom-for-going-shopping.

*Dec. 5 - "Christmas Maze" - Again....gone shopping....easy.

*Dec. 6 - "Dip Chocolate Pretzels" - Yum!

*Dec. 7 - "Make Something for Music Teacher" - I keep trying to figure out how to get my children to think of others instead of themselves. The Christmas Program was that night, so it seemed appropriate to make a card or something simple for my son's music/piano teacher. Unfortunately, we opened that chain link AFTER the program.

*Dec. 8 - "World Vision" - I honestly think this was my 8 year old's favorite day so far. It was mine too. We sat down with the magazine last night and looked at all of the things you can give for Christmas....farm animals, fruit trees, clean water, school supplies, clothes......he was amazed by the "gifts" listed. After much discussion, he chose fruit trees. It made me smile, because soccer balls were a choice too.

I'm pretty sure it will be the best gift we give this year.