Bucket List: the 23 Days of Christmas

Last year's Costco wreath

This year I have a long list of things I want to do for the holiday season. Unbelievably, I've already gotten most of my shopping done. Sprout is old enough to participate in Christmas a bit more, so I plan to involve him in most of the activities. Here's my list, kind of a mix between errand-type things & fun stuff:

1. Making a felt board advent calendar for Sprout. I've bought the felt & have a design in mind, just need to get started...
2. Riding the Bright Nights Christmas Train at Stanley Park. This year we will book tickets & go early to avoid the disappointment we had last year.
3. Using my Inspiration Pass! Sadly, due to people ahead of me on the list reserving it from multiple libraries, my pass came two weeks earlier than expected, so we won't be able to go to the Vancouver Opera's Pirates of Penzance for free. :( Looking forward to seeing the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for the first time, however.
4. Visiting Yaletown's new Christmas festival: Candy Town.
5. A photo with Santa, possibly at Kingsgate Mall again. No lineup, & they're very relaxed about taking photos with your own camera.
6. Getting & decorating our Christmas tree.
7. Making a fresh evergreen wreath for the front door. I've already scoped out all the cedar, holly & juniper hedges in our area that need a tiny bit of pruning...
8. Seeing the Trinity Street Light Festival.
9. Making some Xmas cards--I'm planning to do a few 'real' ones for about a dozen people, then sending a digital version to the rest.
10. Making gifts for my nieces & nephew (I'm going to make them pyjama eaters)
11. Baking some cookies & decorating them with Sprout. A great excuse to pull out our rarely used cookie cutters & try out some family recipes for the first time.
12. Watching some classing Christmas movies: Rudolph, White Christmas, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, etc.
13. Visiting the VanDusen Festival of Lights.
14. Going tobogganing if it snows. I wish this weren't an IF, but a when. I miss the white Christmases of my childhood in the East Kootenays. We could try going up the ski hills on the North Shore, but Sprout wasn't really into it last year & I think he may still be a bit small for the big tubing runs that they have on Seymour & Cypress.
15. Visiting the Peak of Christmas (Grouse Mountain) if we can get a deal on it somehow--it is kind of expensive for a whole family.
16. Making hand-printed wrapping paper with Sprout. I've saved up some white newsprint from parcels we've received & I'm going to get Sprout to stamp or fingerpaint it for his cousins, since ripping into paper gifts is so much more satisfying than unzipping a flannel bag. :)
17. Wrapping the rest of the Christmas gifts with my gift bags/wraps.
18. Reading some new Christmas-themed books with Sprout to get him excited about the holiday.
19. Putting together a gingerbread house. Notice I didn't say making, as I prefer to just buy a kit. It's really the prefab construction that appeals to me, rather than starting from flour...
20. Listening to Christmas songs & teaching Sprout to sing some.
21. Going to a Christmas musical: we've got tickets to The Magic of Santa 
22. Planning & cooking our family Christmas dinner--we're having my parents over this year. It's been about a decade since we had the family dinner, though this one won't be a big affair. Quite possibly just the five of us.
23. Seeing the rest of my extended family at least once: sisters & brothers-in-law, aunt & uncle, cousins & cousins-in-law, nieces, nephew & baby Malik... I think he's my first cousin once removed? Hopefully we'll see most of them on Boxing Day at my sister's annual get-together.

This is a lot of stuff, but the first four things happen in November, so I think we can cram it all in. :) Have you got a list of fun things you want to do this holiday season? What events or attractions are you planning to go to this year? Let me know in the comments below!
 

Nothing says “best gift ever” like a gray fox!
 

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