Category: Gifts

How Many Days Until Christmas

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Are You On The Christmas Countdown?

Once it comes to the end of August each year, some people starting counting how many weeks or even how many days till Christmas. Of course, 2020 is going to be very different for many people: no Office Parties and kids may have started thinking about what they might like for Christmas, but in many households, Christmas expenditure will have to be cut back severely!

If your household is still able to celebrate and you need to know how many days until Christmas, you can see that on the Xmas clock in the top right hand corner of this page.

https://www.merrychristmascountdown.com

Preparing Ahead

If you like a big Christmas each year, you may have already started preparing as soon as the previous Christmas is over: recording what went well and what needs to be improved and starting to store decorations and the tree away ready for next year.

If you cook your special Christmas meal only once each year, it’s important to note down the cooking times and temperatures, the ingredients and any special items you include. It’s so easy to forget to buy that special ingredient or the particular temperature or cooking time needed for your turkey or special recipes but you usually remember them at the time you need them, so write them down then in your journal.

Getting Ready

Have you made a list of all the things you need to do? The cards to send, presents to buy and wrap, guests to prepare for? You can get a download list of things to remember and budget for here.

Secret Santa

Many work places hold a Secret Santa event each Christmas, where each worker draws another person’s name from a hat and buys them a present within a given budget. No one knows who buys which present for which person. Some families, especially large ones, make use of Secret Santa each year to cut down on overall expenditure and allow each person to receive one bigger gift rather than many smaller gifts.

 

The 12 Kindnesses Of Christmas

Christmas Time – The Season Of Goodwill

https://www.merrychristmascountdown.com/Children can be very giving, especially when they understand that not everyone has as much as them and giving is also a good thing to learn. Giving can be a part of an Advent Calendar, so here are 22 acts of kindness for kids to choose from to do do as part of their Christmas Advent Calendar. For some of these, you will need the ingredients ready ahead of time, unless you have the time to go out and source them before starting. For others, you will need to consider safety and caution.

  1. Make Cookies For The Neighbors.
  2. Give Someone A Compliment.
  3. Visit someone who is housebound.
  4. Make and deliver a card for someone in your area who is lonely.
  5. Make an elf basket and leave it on someone’s doorstep with an anonymous poem. This is also known as “you’ve been elfed” and is a neighborhood game, as it is a type of “pay it forward” action. ** See poem at the bottom of this article**
  6. Older teens could volunteer at a homeless facility or collect for charity.
  7. leave a Christmas card on someone’s windscreen
  8. give a blanket or pair of socks or gloves to a homeless person
  9. leave a card or “beautiful” note in a friend or parent’s bag or pocket or somewhere for them to find
  10. take toys to a charity
  11. help out in a foodbank or donate food
  12. call a distant friend or relative you haven’t contacted for a while.
  13. leave a treat for the mailman / garbage collector
  14. pick up litter
  15. take supplies to an animal shelter or donate money to their vet or food supplier to help out with their finances
  16. Paint stones or small rocks and dot them round your neighborhood for people o find
  17. pay it forward in a food queue, pay for the coffee of the person behind you.
  18. drop some change in a charity box
  19. write a thank you note
  20. complete an entry in a gratitude journal
  21. do a job for someone that they were not expecting
  22. make a bird feeder

You’ve been elfed poem

You’ve Been Elfed!
A little surprise is here for you,
To spread some joy and kindness too!
Secretly given, a festive delight,
To make your season merry and bright.

Now it’s your turn—pass it along,
Bring cheer to others with smiles and song.
Share the magic, spread the cheer,
Let’s make this the happiest time of year!

Christmas Eve Box

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The Christmas Eve Box

You or the kids too excited to settle to anything on Christmas Eve? Hard waiting for Santa to arrive? What about preparing a Christmas Eve Box to make the waiting more bearable and have a Merry Christmas Eve?

It’s a great new tradition that you may want to start for yourself or your own family of a box or bag to open on Christmas Eve. It doesn’t have to contain anything massively expensive. It can be one box for each person or one for the whole family. Certainly a family bag or box could help lessen the overall cost.

www.https://www.merrychristmascountdown.com

Some Ideas For Inclusions

You may want to put in Christmas PJs, or onesies to start off the Christmas spirit and keep everyone warm and cosy. You could also include a movie, especially a Christmas themed one, plus some candy, hot chocolate, etc. If you’re going to have hot chocolate, you may also like Christmas Mugs to go with them. There are four of these kind of mug, so you could choose the same one for everyone or a different one for each person. Here are Mug 2, Mug 3 and Mug 4 to check out. It’s easier to include single items, like movies, if you use a family box, rather than individual boxes, though if your family are at the stage where they don’t want to watch a movie together, you may decide to include games for various machines and then perhaps individual boxes would be better.

Less Expensive Items

Christmas socks.

These can have non-slip soles for running around shoe-less, without slipping and sliding on polished floors. You can go for non-Christmas themed socks, such as superheroes, or cartoon animals, or Christmas themes. Non slip socks are available for men, women and children and can be a useful gift for a senior in a hospital or care home.

Music

Christmas music playing softly in the background can be a great way of keeping the whole family calm, while still excited about Christmas. There are many compilations you can buy as CDs or download straight onto a player. And if you want to listen to Christmas music for free, try these original Victorian themed Christmas songs, available online.

Books

There are many children’s books about Christmas, whether religious or secular, depending on your preference. Or why not treat yourself to a Christmas themed book? A number of genres include stories with a Christmas setting or theme, including romance, horror, crime, etc. There are also Sudoku puzzle books for beginners or for people who need Extra Large Print Sudoku Puzzles and Bold and Easy coloring books and cozy coloring books available with Christmas themes. If you are buying coloring or puzzle books, remember to include pencils or crayons, plus a safety sharpener and perhaps an eraser. If your box includes electric toys, remember batteries.

Pet Presents

If you have a family pet, you may wish to include them in the Christmas Eve celebrations, perhaps with pet treats or even a Christmas costume, if your pet would wear it.

After Christmas Events

Your Christmas Eve box may be the place to surprise the family with an after Christmas event, such as Pantomime tickets, or a visit to an ice skating rink or even a ballet or concert. If you like to take a holiday at Christmas, then your Christmas Eve box could be something light to take along with you on holiday, leaving the Christmas presents back at home ready for your return. You can still carry Christmas with you.

Christmas Eve Splurges

Your Christmas Eve box could also include things to do with Christmas, like art for the Christmas tree, such as painted slates or wooden shapes to hang on the tree. These are novel decorations that you can either purchase from a local artist or buy blank to decorate yourself. This could be an activity to keep children occupied and provides keepsakes for that particular Christmas.

Other Christmas Eve Box Gifts

Depending on the age, gender and composition of your Christmas Eve gathering, you might include gifts like jewelry, silver photo frames, tickets for a holiday, or even non-monetary gifts such as paper promises of time spent with someone. Some really desirable gifts might be an evening’s baby sitting, a promise to wash the dishes (or fill the dishwasher) or tidy a room or declutter a cupboard, or even read a long story over several nights to a child. These do not cost the donor any money but provide very welcome gifts., because you are giving the gift of your time and attention.

Leave A Comment

Got a great idea for a Christmas Eve Box item? Leave a comment and share it with us.