This Years Advent Fun Involves Writing A Story.

Every year we put the little stockings I made years ago up, hanging from the banister, going up the stairs.

Each year I do the whole advent thing a little bit differently. There is always a sweet treat, a message from the Christmas Elf and then a quiz or puzzle or Christmas Joke.

One year he had maths questions to solve, which sounds a bit mean but he LOVED it, he was really into maths at the time. Another year he had to solve a riddle, this year Christmas Elf has asked for help...

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Dear Ebi-kun (Christmas Elf actually uses his real name!)

Santa has assigned me a very important job this year. I need to write a story to read out to all the elves after they have finished all their work on Christmas Eve. I am VERY busy so I was hoping you could help me out.

Please use this book to write the story, this is the way to start it*

Once upon a time, in the middle of winter a snow storm raged. Two friends held hands as they trudged through the freezing blizzard to...

When you have finished the first part of the story, show the Mama Elf - she is the one with the red hair, I have left a clue with her on the whereabouts of the magical Christmas Market.

***

When Ebi-kun has finished each section of the story, he shows me and I give him a clue to where the actual advent calendar is, I managed to get a traditional one from kaldi Coffee Farm, where you open the window each day, it is designed to look like a Christmas market! I will change the location every night (if I remember!)

*I also plan to give him prompts along the way to make the story more interesting.

I can't wait to see how this rolls out. And of course it's a sneaky way to get writing practice in, something he doesn't get enough of.

And as our tradition goes, I also pop a little bit of something in each stocking that is a part of a game or puzzle but he doesn't get the complete set until Christmas eve.

In the past I have put in Lego, a few blocks a day - he had no idea what it was going make, that was fun! Card games have been popular, especially when we were traveling in December, it made the portable advent calendar possible! 

This year is a new card game, which I'm looking forward to playing on Christmas Eve!

How do you do your advent? This is very different from mine when I was a kid, we got a paper calendar which had a crap picture behind each window!

Those were the days!

Quick reminder - if you haven't signed up for the FREE Holiday productivity Challenge, pop your name in the box below - it's going to be fun and you will get stuff done because I will be keeping you accountable!

It will free up more time and help you to get the important jobs done and out of the way so that you can enjoy the holidays (plus they are skills you can use again and again)