Growing up one of my favorite holiday traditions was our Christmas Countdown Service Chains. Every year at the end of November my mom would cut a whole load of green and red construction paper strips and grab some pens and staplers for a memorable Family Home Evening (family night!) activity.
We each made our own Christmas countdown chain, and each day we would rip off a link until we were down to the last link on Christmas morning. What made our countdown chains memorable to me was that on each link we wrote a small act of service to complete sometime during the day. I remember writing down things along the lines of helping my mom make dinner or making my sister’s bed. I also have a vivid memory of writing that I should write a nice letter to my Uncle Lewis. If you knew him then that would make you smile.
It has been a number of years since I made a Christmas Countdown Service Chain, but this year our son is three and starting to understand and appreciate the holidays and our family traditions better, so we decided to go for it. Rather than individual chains we made one family chain, which mostly consisted of small acts of service for him to perform. We kept it extremely simple. Some of this year’s upcoming acts of service involve the following things:
Call Grandma and Grandpa and sing them a song.
Give Bapa a hug.
Clean up my toys all by myself.
Draw a picture for Aunt Laura.
Share my Lightsaber with Jade. (His baby sister.)
Let Mommy take a nap.
The second to last one was my favorite one that he dreamt up because it greatly amused me, but I would most like to see the final idea actually enacted. I’m not holding my breath.
I am very excited to do this together as a family. I loved dreaming up ideas with him and watching him get so excited about this activity that he insisted on “writing” some of them himself.
Let the Christmas countdown begin! Happy Holidays!
If you liked this post then you may enjoy these posts as well:
A Multigenerational Holiday Home Tour
Elf on The Shelf Ideas using Marshmallows, Toys, or Household Chores
Christmas Ornaments: A Tale of Tradition
Be sure to follow along on my Christmas Pinterest board for more festive inspiration!
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Amber says
November 29, 2012 at 8:46 pmNice pictures and of course-great idea! 🙂
emily @puttingdownroots says
December 2, 2012 at 10:38 amThank you SO much for linking up to Putting Down Roots “It’s a DIY Christmas”! I really love this idea. I remember making these chains all. the. time. when I was little. I will have to store this idea away for future use 🙂 Thanks again!
Shirley says
December 3, 2013 at 5:39 pmWhat a fun idea! I have a list of scriptures and activities, but they are for older kids so I was just not going to worry about it. But I love let mommy take a nap and your other suggestions! Thanks for sharing! I am going to try to do this for this christmas. 🙂
Nicole says
December 4, 2013 at 9:15 amLet me tell you why I love this! Other serve based advent calendars I’ve see have the moms writing down ideas and making a too-cute countdown. Having the kids involved in coming up with the ideas and creating the countdown is so much more worthwhile for them. Maybe our kids were better off before pinterest!
Sarah Westover McKenna says
December 4, 2013 at 10:29 amI agree! THanks!
Jane says
December 6, 2013 at 5:39 pmThis is adorable!
I’ve never heard of the Christmas countdown chain… with a little one, maybe this is something we could start as a new tradition 🙂
I’d love for you to swing by and link up at our Holiday link party if you can: http://www.urbanejane.com/2013/12/holiday-glam-link-party.html
I hope to see you there! Have a wonderful weekend 🙂