The excitement for children of the days leading up to Christmas is palpable and infectious. When you're a kid, it seems as though Christmas will never arrive. To help pass those days until Dec. 25, make each day special. Count down to Christmas with stories, crafts or acts of kindness.



Wrap up a book for each day, either one borrowed from the library, purchased at a thrift shop or bookstore, or even your own bookcase. Let your child delight in unwrapping the book, and then read it together.

Some suggested titles:

1: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss

2: "How do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas?" by Jane Yolen

3: "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

4: "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

5: "A Ghost Tale for Christmas Magic" by Mary Pope Osborne

6: "Clifford's Christmas" by Norman Bridwell

7: "The Christmas Wish" by Lori Evert

8: "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson

9: "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore

10: "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg

11: "It's Christmas, David!" by David Shannon

12: "Drummer Boy" by Loren Long

13: "Merry Christmas Curious George" by H.A. Rey

14: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by Charles M. Schulz

15: "Yes, Virginia: There is a Santa Claus" by Chris Plehal

16: "Christmas Stories" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

17: "Thomas' Christmas Delivery" by Reverend W. Awdry

18: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Robert L. May

19: "Miss Holly is Too Jolly" by Dan Gutman

20: "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry

21: "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter

22: "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

23: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum

24: "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams

25: "Mary Poppins" by P.L. Travers


1: Head for the hills and cut down your own tree.

2: Make gift tags with cookie cutters and felt. Trace two shapes from a cookie cutter on colored felt. Glue together and add decorations. Make a small hole at the top and add ribbon or string to attach to a gift.

3: Make snowflakes by folding white paper, cutting shapes - diamonds, triangle, squares - then open them up and string together.

4: Set up a hot chocolate stand and ask for a donation to go to your child's favorite charity.

5: Let your kids sprinkle decorations on your cut-out sugar cookies.

6: Take a drive through neighborhoods looking at Christmas decorations. Bring along some hot chocolate and turn the radio on to Christmas music.

7: Make your own snow globe. You'll need: a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid; a plastic figurine; waterproof glue; distilled water (you can also use boiled and cooled tap water); liquid glycerin (available at crafts stores); glitter. Let your child pick out the figure, then glue it inside the lid and let the glue dry. Fill the jar with water, a squirt of glycerin (it helps the glitter swirl), and the glitter. Screw on the lid tightly, then flip.

8: Have a movie night with your favorite holiday shows, or watch a different one each night.

9: Go caroling in your neighborhood, or gather friends and see if you can all sing in a convalescent hospital.

10: Make hand print ornaments. Paint your child's hand white with acrylic paint and have him or her hold a solid colored ornament ball. When the paint on the ornament dries, decorate the fingerprints as snowmen and add white paint dots for snow. Sign and date the bottom of the ornament.

11: Spray-paint pine cones green and decorate with buttons, and other decorations to make them look like Christmas trees.

12: Turn burned-out light bulbs into ornaments. Paint a design of your choice with acrylic paint and water, or use glue and glitter to create something sparkling. Loop some wire through the top to hang on your tree.

13: Take a clear or opaque glass ball ornament and carefully remove the top. Squirt glue inside and let your kids sprinkle colored confetti inside, shake it and then let dry. Replace the top, and you have a multi-colored ball.

14: Make a personal card for someone special with your child's thumbprint. Have him or her dip a thumb in green acrylic paint and make rows of prints, 5-4-3-2-1 to shape a tree on heavy paper or card stock. Then trim the tree with sequins, sparkles or other decorations.

15: Create a Christmas tree to hang on the wall. Paint a piece of canvas a solid color. Trace a Christmas tree shape onto the canvas, leaving room a the top for a star and at the bottom for a trunk. Glue green yarn around the tree shape and let dry. Cover the interior of the tree - section by section - with glue and completely cover the inside with small beads, buttons and other tiny colorful items. Let it dry, then create a star with yellow yarn and an interior of glitter or paint, and use brown felt to make a trunk.

16: Have your children create an "I am thankful" list, adding one item every day. Turn it into a decoration by having the items written on a snowflake- or Christmas tree-shaped paper and string them across the mantel or down a banister.

17: Volunteer as a family at a charity event or soup kitchen.

18: Let each member of the family contribute to the holiday letter to friends.

19: Share homemade treats with neighbors, or take them to a local senior citizens home and let them know they're not forgotten.

20: Spend a night in front of the decorated tree as a family reading stories, making up stories or singing Christmas songs.

21: Turn cone-shaped paper cups into trees and Santas. Paint cups green and turn them upside down. Decorate with glitter, pom-poms, stickers or other sparkling decorations. Paint cups red and cut out a circle face shape from light colored felt and a beard and mustache shape from white felt. Glue facial hair to face and make two black dots with ink for eyes. Glue a white pipe cleaner near the top of the cone to outline his hat, and near the bottom to outline his coat. Glue the face near the top of the cone under his hat, add a small red pom-pom for the nose and a white pom pom on the top of the cone.

22: Help your child write an old-fashioned letter to Santa Claus. No texting, no emailing, no faxing. Put a stamp on it and send it in the mailbox.

23: Start a new tradition. Begin a Christmas village and add a new piece every year, or create a new ornament with your kids every year. Make one for the grandparents, aunties and uncles each year, too.

24: Make gingerbread houses. Use graham crackers if you don't want to make gingerbread dough, or you want to build up to the more extravagant gingerbread creations.

25: For Christmas Day, hide a special gift and write a series of clues - in rhyme - that lead the person on a hunt to find the gift.

Contact reporter Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or Follow her on Twitter @LoriGRecord.

Contact LENS Editor Christine Teldeschi at (209) 546-8274 or Follow her on Twitter @RecordLENS.