Thursday, November 29, 2012

Christmas Countdown Day 22

Day 22.  Today we will have a minute to win it party.  If you have never seen Minute to Win it, you are totally missing out.  We often use variations of minute to win it games at church with our kids and they are always a big hit. 
There are tons of minute to win it games online (just google Minute to Win It). 
These are the ones we are planning on doing...
 
1.  Face the cookie (this is a fav at church)--need cookies for each player.  When the clock starts, players may put one cookie on their forehead.  The cookie must remain in contact with the face (you may not toss the cookie from your forehead and try to catch it in your mouth.  If the cookie falls, the player may reset a cookie on the forehead and try again.  To complete the game, the player must get a cookie into his/her mouth in 60 seconds (it is harder than you would think.)
 
2.  Can you stack the cups with one hand in one minute.  We will be doing this with 21 green party cups, stacking them in a pyramid shape (6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
 
3.  Christmas Cliffhanger. need a table and Christmas cards.  Prior to the game start, stand the cards horizontally along the edge of the table.  When the clock starts, contestant may start blowing the first card.  Contestants may not touch any card.  To complete the game, using only your breath, you must blow a card so that one side of the fold hangs over the edge of the table within the 60 second time limit.
 
Marshmallow Toss--Items needed...One wreath, Large Bag of marshmallows, one bucket
Have one person hold the wreath to their side and place the bucket behind the wreath. Players will have one minute to throw marshmallows through the wreath into the bucket. The player with the most marshmallows in the bucket after one minute is the winner!
Jingle Box--items needed--tissue box, 8 ping pong balls
\A player must shake all ping pong balls out of a tissue box that is strapped to the back of their waist. Make the box look decidedly "christmassy" and substitute ping pong balls with plastic Christmas baubles and decorate the box with red Christmas paper.
 
Do you hear what I hear?--items needed--7 gift boxes containing bells varying from 5 bells per box to 35 bells increasing in 5 bell increments, Table for boxes to be placed upon
Players must place boxes with different quantities of jingle bells inside in the correct order.
Snowball Fight--items needed--tape to divide room, paper for snowballs
Place a dividing line in the middle of the room. Players or teams will need to wad up the white paper and have a snowball fight. The player or team who has the least number of “snowballs” on their side after one minute is the winner.
 
The nut stacker--Items Needed:Candy cane, 7 larger sized nuts...as in nuts and bolts (Check the size to make sure a candy cane could fit through the hole)
Hold the candy cane in one hand by the hook. Using the straight end of the candy cane (ONLY), pick up the nuts and place them one on top of another as high as you can. 

Christmas Countdown Day 21

Day 21.  Tonight will be another easy night.  We will have a Christmas movie night.  Sometimes it is just about relaxing and enjoying each other's company. 
 
Happy Watching!

Christmas Countdown Day 20

Day 20...Easy night.  Every year we find one night to drive around town and look at local light displays.  It actually takes a lot of planning ahead with all the crazy busy schedules now days.  I'm sad to say though we will not be able to see my favorite display...the Chrsitmas lady. 

Christmas Countdown Day 19

Day 19 we will be making one of my favorite Christmas snacks to make with kids.  I'm not sure why but I just love it.  And it is so easy.
What you need: 
Ice cream cones
green icing
sprinkles
candies to decorate with
twizzlers
1.  Place a cone on the plate
 2.  Cover the cone with green icing.
3. Add twizzlers (really you could go from here how ever you want, using whatever you want to decorate with.)
 4.  Decorate your tree.
 Eat and enjoy!

Christmas Countdown Day 18

Day 18 we will be reading the story of the Three trees.  If you have never read this story you should read it.  It is about three trees who want to be turned into amazing things.  As they are chopped down and fashioned into a feed box, a boat, and some thrown out beams they find themselves disappointed.  The story goes on to tell how those trees were holding the most amazing thing ever...Jesus.  I love it.  You can find it here
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After reading the story we will do this sticker craft.  I ordered this several years ago from Oriental Trading so I'm not sure if this is still available.  It was supposed to be a 3D stand up tree but they were cut incorrectly so we never used them.  We will this year :)

Monday, November 26, 2012

Christmas Countdown Day 17

Day 17 Christmas Bingo
Several years ago I found these Bingo cards at DLTK-kids.  They have all kinds of themes to print and you can print as many as you want for free.  You can print smaller cards if you want.  I prefer the larger ones.  I printed double the amount we needed and laminated them back to back so I could get more for my laminating money :)  If you want to make some for yourself here is the link to take you there :)
I expect that we will play this several times this night.  I don't think the kids will "win" anything for getting a bingo, if they do it will only be a piece of candy :)

Christmas Countdown Day 16

Day 16...Christmas discussions.  yes, you have seen this activity already.  Tonight we have church again so our activity will be during lunch time again.  (we need our naps :) ). 
When I first began my search of activities to do for the month of December I stumbled upon this site, teaching mom.com, but it is being updated. I still was able to find some fun discussion (and a few serious ones) questions there about Christmas stuff. (You can find the questions here). I put them all in this fun box. We will pass it around and have the kids pick out a question and have several people answer it before moving on. Some of the questions we are using are...
 
1.  If you could make up a new advent or Christmas tradtion for your family to start what would it be?
2.  If you lived in the time of Jesus' birth and heard about him, what gift would you bring to the manger?  Why?
3.  What is your favorite Christmas story?
4.  If you could be any character in a play about the Nativity, who would you be and why?