I’m a huge fan of Christmas. And I love the idea of an advent calendar to build the excitement leading up to the Big Day. What I’m not such a fan of, though, is celebrating that lead-up with a chocolate every day.

So this year Mr. 4.5 and I have decided we’re going to celebrate the lead-up to Christmas with an Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar. From the 1st to the 24th of December, we’re going to mark each day with one small (or not-so-small) act of kindness. It’s going to be our way of saying ‘thanks’ for what we have, and recognising that Christmas is not just about receiving – it’s about the joy of giving as well. We’re going to call it The Kindness Project.

We’ve bought some little Christmas cards, numbered them with little stickers and stuck them on a piece of green cardboard. Each card will have the act of kindness for that particular day written on it, and each one will be sealed with a little gold dot sticker. Every day, we’ll open a new one and try to do whatever is written inside it.

So here’s what we’ve come up with so far. It’s not set in stone yet, so I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have any other ideas. Some are about food, some aren’t…

1. Donate a new toy to a charity Christmas Appeal
2. Donate some food to a charity
3. Make some Christmas truffles and give them out as gifts to homeless people around the city (and give some money to any buskers we see along the way)
4. Offer to walk our neighbours’ dogs
5. Create a book called ‘What I Love About You’ for someone special
6. Pick some flowers for the kinder teacher
7. Help Mr. 2 make breakfast for himself
8. Pot one of our tomato plants from our veggie garden and give it away
9. Make someone laugh with a Jib Jab card
10. Surprise someone with cookie mix in a jar
11. Hold the door open for someone
12. Draw a picture for someone’s fridge
13. Write nice messages on the footpath with chalk
14. Donate a little bit of savings money to a charity
15. Record a video of Mr. 4.5 dancing (he loves a dance) and send it to someone to brighten up their day
16. Make some food for Mummy and Daddy to take into work to share with their workmates
17. Write a thank you note (or maybe even put a Turkey Money Hug in someone’s mail box!)
18. Make a bookmark for someone who likes to read
19. Make some food gifts to take into kinder
20. Make a Christmas decoration for someone
21. Write a letter and mail it to someone
22. Make a freezer meal for someone
23. Water a neighbour’s garden for them
24. Give a stranger a lucky charm

We might even have a go at making some fortune cookies and putting some uplifting messages in them too! We may not manage to tick off every single one every day, but we’ll do our best to make sure we’ve at least done most of them by the time Santa points his sleigh in our direction. If we find any great recipes along the way, we’ll be sure to share them with you!

Merry Christmas – may the joy of giving be with you too!
Tami & Crackers (Mr. 4.5)