It started around four years ago with some friends sharing ideas. I wanted something that added ritual and tradition to our holiday season, and something to prolong the festivities. After many emails and morning coffees to fine tune things, we’ve gradually arrived at something that works for us.
We have a card for each day of December until Christmas Eve. On each card is a family activity: drive around and look at holiday lights, watch a holiday movie, have family game night, make Christmas cookies, etc. Every day we open the card and do whatever is on it.
I started hiding the card in our troll, because the girls love hunting for it all over the house. My grandfather gave me this troll 40 years ago. I figure it works as well as an elf.
We had an unexpected day off of school today because of the high winds last night and all the downed trees, so the first card today was to get our holiday music out and make our gingerbread men.