Welcome to Day 1 of our Book & Activity Advent! It took me all day long to get this little advent rolling, but we made it!! Our first book ended up being Little Man's bedtime story. He loved it so much that he insisted on reading it twice and wanted to take it to bed with him. Success!
Here Comes Santa Claus is a song book--Little Man's favorite! The words are the lyrics to the popular song "Here Comes Santa Claus", and the illustrations are gorgeous! I thought this would be a good way to introduce Santa to Little Man. Even though my singing voice was atrocious, he must have loved it because he demanded an encore!
What better way to begin our book advent than with a little countdown made just for Little Man?! This activity is something I did each year with my first grade students. I taught year-round school, and we were off track during the month of December. This activity was something they completed at home with their families to anticipate Christmas.
Say hello to a less-hairy Santa. But don't worry, he won't be beardless for long because every day during the month of December, we will be adding a cotton ball to his face to form a fluffy, white beard!
For this project:
* I created this little poem in Photoshop using this Echo Park Paper kit.
* I found a cute Santa face here at Vector Jungle. I just cut off the beard when I printed it out.
* I mounted all of it on a couple of pieces of green cardstock joined with coordinating scrapbook paper.
* Santa is looking jolly on our refrigerator.
Little Man loved putting the first cotton ball on Santa's beard tonight with his Daddy. I have a feeling he will grow to love this even more as the days go on. Little Man loves his routines! We have plenty of advents around this house... lots of way to look forward to Christmas!
Come back later for a book and activity for Day 2!
Thanks for reading!
That is the cutest advent for little kids! I've held back making a traditional because I figure my son won't really understand it. But he would have TOO much fun with this!! I may steal it... :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute advent! I love it. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cute! I have to admit my attempts at following something like that never go well.
ReplyDeleteI love this!!!! And I think my daughter will, too! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteCeeeeeUTE!
ReplyDeleteLove the cotton ball beard idea! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh - the Santa beard is the cutest Advent calendar idea I have ever seen!!!
ReplyDeleteSuch great ideas...already made my santa and picked out my xmas books to wrap...thanks:)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness .. I love this idea!! My kids would freak out over something like this!!!
ReplyDeleteCUTE! I love this! We are definatly going to be doing this!!!
ReplyDeletewww.meandmarielearning.blogspot.com
Hey I am really wanting to do this .. but I am wondering how you get the cotton balls to stick.. did you use glue or tape?
ReplyDeleteWhat font did you use for the poem? I love it and I would love to use it all the time!!!
ReplyDeleteThe font I used is Century Gothic. It's one of my fav's... simple and sweet!
ReplyDeleteOh, and not to mention this, It probably won't get done today, but hopefully I can have it ready by Monday!
ReplyDeleteKimie
As always, I love your ideas. I'm not starting the full advent stuff this year but did make a Santa Beard countdown :-) We put our first two cotton balls on tonight - one for each of my boys :-) Thanks for giving such wonderful ideas to those of us that are less creative - it makes my children's lives so much more exciting :-)
ReplyDeleteSHUT UP... THIS IS THE CUTEST IDEA EV-AH! My daughter brought home a colored santa face with numbers on his beard and you add a cotton ball each day... same concept, but yours with the poem is precious. Love it, thanks for linking. Jen
ReplyDeleteVery sweet idea. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are seriously so darling. I have seen this before...but of course yours is cuter then any of the ones I have seen. Love it and with the book.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea and think we're going to make it next week. How did you print Santa so he would be large enough?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
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