Christmas itself is right around the corner. Are you all ready for it, because I absolutely am! Today is Blogmas Day 6, and it is all about kid friendly Christmas ideas.

To me, the holidays are about remembering why we celebrate it in the first place (Jesus’ birthday), enjoying all the beauty of giving, and spending time with family and loved ones.kid-friendly-christmas-ideas

I try to let my kids be as involved as possible when it comes to all things Christmas. I grew up surrounded by joy and love around this time and I want them to know all of that. Here are some of my kid friendly thoughts for the holiday’s and some of their favorite things about this time of year!

Kid Friendly Christmas Ideas

The one thing that has been a constant, even that I remember doing as a child, is the chocolate advent calendar. I know… they’re cheap and flimsy and the chocolate is kind of disgusting. They really aren’t the most creative when it comes to advent calendars. (Personally, I would rather have one that counts down with wine:)) But our older girls absolutely love them! It is so much fun for them to find what day it is and popping out their piece of chocolate for that day.

advent calender

Another thing I love doing with them is letting them pick out or help make presents for family. I always give them the opportunity to pick out a gift for their dad and make sure that they get to contribute if I make something for another family member. It makes them feel included and also like they are giving something too, even if they aren’t technically buying something or making it all on their own. My daughter literally had a “hand” in making this for her Nana:) salt dough hand ornament

You can check out my Holiday Bucket List for more ideas on what to do with your kids and family this season.

In terms of gifts I give to my kids, in all honesty, I have slowly realized that there needs to be some limit. The first Christmas that we celebrated with my oldest (she was 9 months old) I went a little crazy. I thought that she needed everything and anything that I saw in the store. Now, I have come to the reality that this just isn’t true! I’m really going to focus on these categories for gifts this year, because we are working on teaching our children gratitude and thankfulness, not just “Want, Want, Want”.

  • Something they want
  • Something they need
  • Something to wear
  • Something to read

I’ve really done my best to try to stick to it. Mind you, I said “try” not that I have succeed in staying within those limits yet… But we are making progress! This year is probably the closest I’ve come to sticking with it, although we still do stocking stuffers and things like that.

These guidelines just seem like the best way to not overspend and spoil them with a bunch of things that they don’t need. We all know that they are going to get all that from their grandparents and their aunts and uncles.

Traveling this holiday season with your family? Here are some tips for Traveling with Kids.

It’s really important in our family to take the time and teach our kids about the real meaning of Christmas. Every Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story out of the Bible. Even if they are young and don’t completely understand it all yet, they will soon. It’s surprising how fast I have seen our children pick up on things. 

I am really excited for what I found this year, which is a stick-on nativity scene that they can rearrange not the wall as much as they want without any damage! It’s amazing. It has all of the people needed to tell them the story of Jesus’ birth, and it is a fun thing that they can play with without parents worrying about their ceramic/glass nativity set being broken.

sticker nativity

You can find this story in Luke 2:1-20 🙂

Check out more kid friendly Christmas fun from the other #blogmas2017 blogger family:)

*Cheers to more giving this season* joanna at motherhood and merlot