Tell me about your Holiday Season activities

kelbel527

We actually have some free time the next two weekends, so I am looking to do up as much Christmas-y stuff.  So far, of our usual items we have: bake Christmas cookies, drive to see Christmas lights and an art activity for gifts.  What else should we do?  

A coworker said that he takes his daughters to the dollar store to pick out gifts for their extended family just from them.  I'm debating doing that with Brody, because I think it would really allow him to put thought into what everyone would want.

Other fun ideas?  

MarisaKathleen

https://www.milwaukeedowntown.com/about-us/special-events/milwaukee-holiday-lights-festival/jingle-bus

Do this.  It's awesome.  The boys will like the lights, and you guys will like the lame announcer.  It's only $3!!

Pokedot

MarisaKathleen said:

https://www.milwaukeedowntown.com/about-us/special-events/milwaukee-holiday-lights-festival/jingle-bus

Do this.  It's awesome.  The boys will like the lights, and you guys will like the lame announcer.  It's only $3!!

Why don't I liver closer to Milwaukee? It's a 4+ hour drive for me

I don't have really anything to add to your list but maybe make a gingerbread house together? I saw the kits at Target or I'm sure anywhere really. I debated about doing this with B but I think it could turn out to be a disaster. I might still try. What about the new Penguins of Madagascar movie? We DVR'd the "Toy Story of Terror" movie and the commerical for the penguin movie comes on B gets super excited. I think we might try the moive this weekend at a matinee. It would only be $12 for us to go.

We do the driving around with the lights, hot cocoa and a cookie and christmas music playing. We'll make/decorate cookies next weekend when DH is on mids.

MarisaKathleen

@Pokedot, if you lived closer to Milwaukee we would definitely be IRL friends. :-)  

Pokedot

MarisaKathleen said:

@Pokedot, if you lived closer to Milwaukee we would definitely be IRL friends. :-)  

:x  Feeling the love! I feel the same! We'll need to do a real live meet up some time! I love that area!

MarisaKathleen

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

kelbel527

MarisaKathleen said:

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

Ooh can I come too??  

MarisaKathleen

kelbel527 said:

MarisaKathleen said:

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

Ooh can I come too??  

Of course!  Aren't you building a pool at your new house?! ;-)  Pool Party!

kelbel527

MarisaKathleen said:

kelbel527 said:

MarisaKathleen said:

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

Ooh can I come too??  

Of course!  Aren't you building a pool at your new house?! ;-)  Pool Party!

No pool yet @marisakathleen - it is an option for the long-term plan.  But we do have a huge back yard!  

hmp1

How about having the boys take some of the christmas cookies around to the neighbors (or apt staff) or dropping some off at the fire station.

Christmas movie night. Pile up a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor and watch a movie they haven't seen yet this year.

You can do the dollar store or a party store and have them pick out little gifts for their school friends. And have them make cards for their teachers.

kelbel527

hmp1 said:

How about having the boys take some of the christmas cookies around to the neighbors (or apt staff) or dropping some off at the fire station.

Christmas movie night. Pile up a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor and watch a movie they haven't seen yet this year.

You can do the dollar store or a party store and have them pick out little gifts for their school friends. And have them make cards for their teachers.

Awesome ideas!  Thanks!

Hyaline

I put DD in a tutu and we watched The Nutcracker on DVD...probably not a great option for you, but "costume movie" can be fun.

Last year we made cornstarch clay ornaments and "marble" Christmas paper (squished paint in a Ziploc)--we may do that next week.

AKB090609

kelbel527 said:

MarisaKathleen said:

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

Ooh can I come too??  

I vote this happens one of the weekends I'm in town too, I spend enough time in Milwaukee and Madison with people who drive me nuts, I'd love to see people I actually like!

MarisaKathleen

AKB090609 said:

kelbel527 said:

MarisaKathleen said:

Summer for sure!  When we can actually go outside and do something!

Ooh can I come too??  

I vote this happens one of the weekends I'm in town too, I spend enough time in Milwaukee and Madison with people who drive me nuts, I'd love to see people I actually like!

It's a deal. :-)  You ladies just keep me posted when you're up for a get together and we'll do something awesome with or without our kids.

myjohnsonboys

We have been watching Christmas movies together. They love Jingle All the way 1&2 and Home Alone. We are heading to A Very Merry Christmas at Sesame Place this weekend and next weekend we will do a Brunch with Santa. I'm also going to try to sneak in a gingerbread house and the tree at Rockefeller here in NYC. Have you done your visit with Santa?

AKB090609

I just spent nap time prepping a gingerbread house, pipecleaner candy canes and pipecleaner trees for DH and DD1 to decorate tonight I plan to have them do it when I'm cooking dinner.

Holly_1007

Decorate a gingerbread house? See if there is a house in the area that has their Christmas lights synced to a radio station, it is really fun to see in person! My boys always buy a gift for each other

bosha711

We took pics with Santa & went to an outdoor festival that had a tree lighting, Frozen characters, ice skating, etc.

We went on a Polar Express train ride.

We have tickets to go to a drive through lights display that's set to music.

Our town does free horse drawn carriage rides each Friday evening this month, so that's the plan for this coming Friday.

We did a gingerbread house last year.

We watch Christmas movies & read a Christmas book each night.

We do a Christmas countdown calendar.

DS has a battery operated Christmas train/tracks that he got last year & we'll be setting that up for him to play with.

Closer to Christmas I'll make some cookies for them to decorate.

kelbel527

Thanks for all the awesome ideas everyone!  We went and saw Christmas lights this weekend and made Grandparent gifts.  

Next weekend I plan on baking and making teacher cards.  I'm also thinking of starting the tradition of Christmas movie night on the 23rd.  We're usually lazy that night anyway because we have 2 full days of celebration ahead of us, plus the kids don't have to be up for school the next morning, sounds like a perfect time for a movie night.  

I love the idea of the gingerbread house, but I don't know if the kids will actually like anything other than eating the candy...

MarisaKathleen

@kelbel527, did you guys go out to Country Springs and drive through the lights?  we went on Saturday.  

Cal screamed 90% of the time, Nancy said she had to poop and then proceeded to take her shoes off and chew on them for the duration of the time and then I cried the whole way home.

For $15, it was a real exciting experience....

kelbel527

@Marisakathleen - I posted in the Monday thread but we did Candy Cane Lane.  We haven't done Country Springs yet, but it was on my list if we have time.  We did it when Aedan was a baby and he did OK, but you know how babies are, you just have to catch them at the right time.

So sorry it didn't work out.  Maybe next year?  Aedan didn't seem very thrilled by the lights this weekend (I kept thinking he fell asleep, he was so quiet), but Brody was pretty stoked.  Maybe a drive through the neighborhood lights are better while they're still young...

MarisaKathleen

We're going to try Candy Cane lane this weekend.  My best friend from college lives there, so if it sucks for the kids, we'll just stop there and have a visit instead. :-)

Pokedot

MarisaKathleen said:

We're going to try Candy Cane lane this weekend.  My best friend from college lives there, so if it sucks for the kids, we'll just stop there and have a visit instead. :-)

Is this in Kenosha or Pleasant Prairie?

 

kelbel527

Pokedot said:

MarisaKathleen said:

We're going to try Candy Cane lane this weekend.  My best friend from college lives there, so if it sucks for the kids, we'll just stop there and have a visit instead. :-)

Is this in Kenosha or Pleasant Prairie?

 

It's closer to Milwaukee @pokedot (specifically, West Allis).  https://www.maccfund.org/News/EventNewsListing/253/

@Marisakathleen - We were just talking last week about how much it would suck to live right there.  The traffic is horrible this time of year.  Then again, it might be fun to live in a such a festive neighborhood.

Pokedot

kelbel527 said:

Pokedot said:

MarisaKathleen said:

We're going to try Candy Cane lane this weekend.  My best friend from college lives there, so if it sucks for the kids, we'll just stop there and have a visit instead. :-)

Is this in Kenosha or Pleasant Prairie?

 

It's closer to Milwaukee @pokedot (specifically, West Allis).  https://www.maccfund.org/News/EventNewsListing/253/

@Marisakathleen - We were just talking last week about how much it would suck to live right there.  The traffic is horrible this time of year.  Then again, it might be fun to live in a such a festive neighborhood.

I ended up googling it. Thanks! We saw something similar in Kenosha when we were down there 5 years ago. The one I was thinking of was "Christmas Lane." It would be awesome to see something like this with B. Too bad we don't have anything like that here.

melody921

So far we've:

Driven around to look at Christmas lights

Gone to see Santa

baked some cookies (more are coming)

gone to a Christmas pageant complete with live animals

We have an Advent house that has little woodland creatures in each of the doors.

Other things we plan to do:

Go to Hershey for the lights

Go to a Christmas light display at our local zoo

terri_doula2010

Jingle bus is so fun! Both of my kids loved it. My mom is coming to visit next weekend (!! we haven't seen her in well over a year) and we're going to go again with her.

I wanna get together with you guys too (helloooooo lurker).

hmp1

bosha711 said:

 Our town does free horse drawn carriage rides each Friday evening this month, so that's the plan for this coming Friday. 

I totally forgot that our town does this too! DH has to go to an out of town funeral this weekend and my parents are gone too. This might be something I can do with the boys on Friday. 

tinyhumantoe

This weekend we did Breakfast with Santa at the university. For $4/plate they gave children and adults 3 silver dollar pancakes (literally the size of a silver dollar), two sausage links, and a carton of OJ or milk. No seconds. It was ridiculous.

The line for Santa was a 2h wait (yah, no.) but there were fun crafts set up for the kids and that was a good time.

We did some Christmas festival at a tiny town's historical museum. It was okay.