The 12 days of Christmas

We have a fun little tradition around here that I thought I'd share. It's loosely based around the 12 days of Christmas song. Now, technically the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas Day, but we do it a little differently. I start before Christmas so that the 12th day winds up being on Christmas Eve. Each morning for 12 days, my children will find a little surprise in their stocking. The surprise is always related in some way to which day we are on. For example, on the 5th day last year, they all received a 5 oz tub of play doh and on the 12th day they all received 12 of the old fashioned army men toys, as I had found a pack of 48 for $1. I don't spend a lot of money on this game. Christmas is expensive enough as it is! It's more about being creative and having fun and using our stockings (which they typically do not have gifts in on Christmas morning). My kids are usually pretty easy to please, so they are excited about simple things in their stockings. I gave them all three chocolate chips one year on day 3 and they flipped. They are dairy free, gluten free, low sugar, and dye free for the most part, so a chocolate chip is actually a big deal around here, even if it was dairy free. I also avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as I can. Usually, they get to peek in their stocking after breakfast and morning chores are over. This year, I put a little slip of paper in with their stockings relating their gift to the song.

"On the first day of Christmas, my mama gave to me....

  a new ornament to hang on our tree."

By the end we had quite an interesting song. It's hard to sing things like "8 oz of chocolate almond milk!" On the 6th day, their papers said 6 chicken nuggets. We had a lot of errands to run in Nebraska that day, so I figured I'd take them to Chik Fil A for lunch. They were happy for nuggets, but even happier to find out where we were getting them from. It's a fun little tradition that they love. Here are some photos of one of our days.

Ready to peek inside!

Oh, what could it be today?!

Hysteria breaks out as they realize it's candy!

 

What their papers looked like

M&Ms are a huge deal in my house. They almost never get any. These are high fructose corn syrup and dye free chocolate drops from Sunspire, so they aren't technically M & Ms. But they look close enough to the real thing to make my kids happy. (The jelly beans were also gluten, dye, and HFCS free.) If you are wondering how Planes: Fire and Rescue fits in there, I'll explain. It was day 5 and I told them I took $5 for each child I had and bought them a new movie. I don't usually spend anywhere near $20 on one of their days, but we had a 6 hr road trip to make and I wanted them to have a new movie to watch in the van to keep them quiet.

If you want to know where I got my natural candy from, here's the link:
The Natural Candy Store