• About
    • Work With Me – Individuals
    • Work With Me – Businesses
    • In The News
    • Privacy Policy, Terms & Disclosure
  • Gluten Free Flour
  • Gluten Free Bread Mix
  • Free GF Bread Making Guide
  • Cookery Classes
    • Gluten Free Christmas Cookery Live Online Lessons – 2022
    • Gluten Free Christmas (Pre-recorded)
    • 1:1 Gluten Free Cookery Classes
    • How To Make Gluten Free Bread
    • How To Make Healthy Gluten Free Treats
    • Gluten Free Savoury Bakes Online Cooking Course
    • How To Make Gluten Free Puff Pastry – Video Lesson
  • Recipe Books
    • Gluten Free Christmas Recipes (Downloadable Book)
    • How To Make Gluten Free Pastry – Recipe E-Book
    • Gluten Free Easter Recipes (Downloadable Book)
    • Simple Gluten Free Breakfast Recipe Book
  • Recipes
    • Gluten Free Recipes
      • Easter
      • Vegan
      • Recipes Using My Flour
      • Breakfast
      • Main Meal
      • Vegetarian
      • Side Dishes
      • Snacks
      • Condiments
      • Desserts
      • Bread
      • Cakes & Bakes
      • Biscuits & Cookies
      • Birthday Cakes
      • Drinks
      • Seasonal
      • Cosmetics/Personal Care
      • Christmas
    • Dairy-free Recipes
    • Egg Free Recipes
    • Soya Free Recipes
    • Nut Free Recipes
    • Refined Sugar Free Recipes
    • Yeast Free Recipes
    • Low FODMAP Recipes
  • Online Courses
    • Gluten Free Diet For Beginners: Free E-Course
    • Say Goodbye To Gluten – Online Course
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Health blogs
    • Gluten Free Eating Out
    • Vicki’s favourite things
    • Gluten Free Tips & Support
    • Gluten Free Book Reviews
    • Gluten Free Kids
    • Interviews
  • Podcast
  • Contact
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • 0 items£0.00
The Free From Fairy

The Free From Fairy

Home » Gluten Free Kids » An Alternative Advent Calendar…

4th December 2014 ·

An Alternative Advent Calendar…

Gluten Free Kids· Gluten Free Tips & Support

advent calendar

Now I will admit, this is rather late and probably not at all useful right now!  However, I thought I would share our idea for an alternative advent calendar with you…

Like you, we often find that advent calendars are a bit of a pain.  They generally contain chocolate these days and finding one that is gluten-free and dairy-free and actually tastes nice can be a bit of a challenge.

Also, if you are like me, you may not particularly like the fact that at 7am (at the latest) in the morning your children are scoffing chocolates!

So, this year we decided to do something a bit different and go for an ‘activity’ advent calendar.

Well, technically when I say ‘we’ that is not quite correct…

When I proposed the idea to Mr M I was met with hard stares and annoyance.  ‘Why make life more difficult for us’ they said.

However, the following day, he seemed to have mellowed rather, and had even written a list of ideas in his book of ‘important things to do’, which happens to be a Beano notebook!

Anyway, in order to help you be prepared next year (cough cough)…I thought I would share the activities that we are putting in the advent calendar this year.  We already had an advent calendar with ‘drawers’ to pull out and fill with your own things.  I think it came from M&S.  If you didn’t have one, you could make one or buy one!

The idea is, write a load of things down and then the night before decide which activity will be the one for the following day (allowing for the time you have available that day)…and pop a little note to that effect in the correct box of the advent calendar.

With the first three activities there were things to find that went with the activity which we hid and then played a game of ‘hot and cold’ to find them.  The kids seemed suitably enthusiastic and excited hence why I am sharing the idea, even if it is rather late!

So here goes…our activity list for advent 2014:

1. Learn how to draw some Christmassy things (with accompanying Usborne book – Christmas Things to Draw)

2. Make Christmas cards (with accompanying blank cards, stickers, gel pens, glitter etc)

3. Have Christmas gluten-free fish and chips (with accompanying deely boppers and santa hat)

4. Decorate the Christmas cake together

5. Make some Christmas biscuits and take them to the local day centre for elderly people

6. Choose one loved toy each to donate to charity – am looking in to whether we can take these to our local hospitals children’s ward

7.  Go on a special trip to see the Christmas lights

8.  Go ice skating

9.  Sing carols around the village (an organised activity to raise money for charity)

10. Go to the village outdoor evening carol concert

11. Make a Christmas door hanger (with accompanying Wilko make your own door hanger kit!)

12. Make some decorations for the Christmas tree (using salt dough…so hide some salt and lovely silver and gold paint)

13. Go to late night Christmas shopping and choose some gifts

14. Make a gluten-free and dairy-free gingerbread house

15. Make presents for teachers, friends and family (for example, chocolate bark, fudge, bath scrub…hide the ingredients to be used)

16. Make paper chains and hang them in the living room (hide the paper-chain paper for the kids to find)

17. Choose the Christmas tree and help to decorate it

18. Borrow a Christmassy film and watch it with a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows in

19. Prepare the reindeer food and gift/food for Father Christmas (obviously a Christmas Eve activity!)

20. Read Christmas books together in front of the fire

21. Attend the local church nativity play

22. A treasure hunt to find a new decoration for the Christmas tree

23. Have fun with a Christmas sticker and activity book (always given to us each year and we have loads from last year – we will hide two for the kids to find)

24. Make glass effect scenes – using a Wilko kit that cost £1!

christmas activity

There are always fallback days when we will put a few sweets in the box because life is just too busy sometimes!

I hope these give you some ideas though.  Have you ever done anything like this?  What activities did you do?

 

Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

Previous Post: « Spiced Vegetable Millet & Buckwheat Pilauf
Next Post: Gluten Free Vegan Shortbread Rolls With Cardamom, Chocolate & Mincemeat »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Honest mum says

    9th December 2014 at 11:52 am

    Fab post and love the idea of the gluten and dairy free gingerbread house! Thanks for linking up to #brilliantblogposts x

    • Vicki Montague says

      9th December 2014 at 12:09 pm

      Yeah, we’ll see how it turns out and I will try and keep my hands off it as much as possible, letting the kids do it! 😉

  2. Vicki Montague says

    8th December 2014 at 1:02 pm

    Ooo, what is elf on the shelf? Sounds like great fun!! Roo and Pickle are having fun although I did get asked if they could have chocolate next year!!! 😉

  3. Vicky says

    5th December 2014 at 12:56 am

    What a fantastic idea, much more fun than a traditional advent calendar!

    • Vicki Montague says

      5th December 2014 at 11:08 am

      It has been quite fun thinking of things…and I have to say, the kids have been really excited too which is wonderful!

  4. Gina Caro says

    4th December 2014 at 9:13 pm

    What a brilliant idea! Much more exciting than the bog standard chocolate ones. Thank you for sharing on #ThriftyThursday 🙂

    • Vicki Montague says

      5th December 2014 at 11:06 am

      Thanks Gina! It has been really lovely so far seeing the kids getting excited about what they are going to do! I was worried they would be annoyed about not having chocolate but they haven’t said anything!

  5. Mel says

    4th December 2014 at 8:14 pm

    I’m with you on that one! Each of our little monkeys got their wooden advent calendar for their 1st Christmas and I normally spend ages sorting out their activities and making sure they work together for each day. This year, even though I was planning to get it all sorted in November (ha ha, as if!), I have gone with Celebrations for the older 2 and I feel awful for doing that (oh well). The activity goes in Jumpy’s calendar (have been writing it on the day, hello organisation!) and we do one thing all together. Tomorrow will be your #22 and I’ll do it now (feeling organised now!) xx

    • Vicki Montague says

      5th December 2014 at 11:06 am

      You are a wonder mum! Don’t feel bad about the older two…bet they are more than happy! My two have the same activities…there is no way I could do different ones for everyone…and I am certainly not organised enough to put them in in advance. Last night at 11pm we remembered that we hadn’t put todays in!!

Primary Sidebar

Vicki Montague, the Free From Fairy

Welcome!

Hi. I'm Vicki Montague, scientist and mum to 'Roo' (15) and 'Sunshine' (13). I'm a freelance recipe developer specialising in 'free from' food and spend many hours in my kitchen experimenting to create exciting healthy recipes that are all gluten-free & mainly dairy-free. In July 2016 I launched the world's first wholegrain, gluten-free and rice-free flour blends. In May 2018 I launched my first online programme to help people adapt to a gluten free life. I can be found at food festivals giving cookery demos and I love nothing more than teaching people how to cook and lead a positive wholesome life. Find out more about my story...

Follow me…

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Footer

"Let food be thy medicine. And let medicine be thy food".

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Roo’s Recipes
  • Shop
  • Vicki Recommends
  • Useful Websites
  • Full Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Free From Fairy