A calm and creative countdown to Christmas – 24 nature play & craft activities

We're ready for a calm and creative countdown to Christmas. We made our advent calender, like last year and the year before, from fallen leaves. This year we collected the leaves and bark from our little farm - making it extra special.

Natural leaf advent calender 2012 by little eco footprints 1

We’re ready for a calm and creative countdown to Christmas

We made our advent calender, like last year and the year before, from fallen leaves. This year we collected the leaves and bark from our little farm – making it extra special. 

Natural leaf advent calender 2012 by little eco footprints 3

We’ll be on the move a lot in the lead up to Christmas, between our urban home, our little farm, and a few days farm sitting. So we’re taking the calender with us – and have hung it in our van. 

Each day of the month corresponds to a fun nature play or craft activity.

I’ve chosen quick and simple activities that we’ll do after dinner each evening. 

  1. Go for a walk in search of feathers
  2. Climb a tree
  3. Paint a picture using feathers instead of paint brushes 
  4. Create a feather mobile 
  5. Go on a leaf hunt & make a leaf collage
  6. Grow sprouts on the kitchen bench
  7. Build a robot out of rubbish
  8. Make toilet roll creatures
  9. Make jewelry out of bits of nature
  10. Paint with mud 
  11. Role play being snake safe
  12. Go bird watching 
  13. Make a nature paint brush
  14. Create some heart rocks and hide them around our neighbourhood
  15. Make playdough
  16. Build with playdough and wooden blocks
  17. Make and enjoy bath paints
  18. Make a fruit neclace
  19. Make pop corn & create a pop corn necklace 
  20. Go for a walk around the block and pick a bunch of flowers
  21. Make a rain gauge 
  22. Make a bow and arrow
  23. Make boats out of bark
  24. Draw with chalk on something you wouldn’t normally draw on

Wishing you a calm and creative count down to Christmas. 

Are you doing an advent calender this year? With gifts or activities? 

I’ll be sharing pics of our calm and creative countdown on Instagram and Twitter using the tag #creativecountdown. Would you like to join me? 

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