How do you count down to Christmas? In our house, it’s no surprise that Legos are involved.
Even with a plethora of Lego bricks, wheels, random pieces, and unnameable Lego Hero Factory body parts strewn through my house, I’m still just as much a sucker for a good Lego building project as my 8-year-old son.
My sister and I didn’t have Legos as kids. I think there are probably several reasons for this. One being that unless it was pouring rain, we were playing outside with neighborhood kids, and another being that we had Barbie dolls. Building with Lego bricks was not a popular “girl” project or activity. Too bad for me. As I have learned late in life, I’m actually quite good at building things and enjoy it. (There are several pieces of furniture in our house that can attest to this statement.) As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, even the people at Lego have learned that the adult building audience is quite strong and is the reason for some of their bigger sales of projects costing up to $1,000 to purchase.
But, I digress. Back to Legos and Christmas. So, yet again I have given in to my inner child engineer and bought a Lego Advent calendar. (There’s a City and a Star Wars version; we got the former.) While I don’t love spending $35 on an Advent calendar, the idea of helping my kids (or more likely acting as referee while they fight over who builds on which day) complete little Lego figures each day from December 1 to December 24 seemed like a fun idea–and it has been. As with any other Advent calendar, this one won’t last from this year to next, but the kids and I have looked forward to the daily building.  It’s a safer option for me than the Elf on the Shelf. I have enough trouble remembering when the Tooth Fairy needs to come.
What do you do in your house to countdown to Christmas?
We have the Lego City Advent calendar too! (along with Ralph the Elf on the Shelf and a little chalkboard that counts down the days till Christmas).
My son had boxes and boxes of Legos. We had them stored in the cellar and brought them out for our grandson. No directions, but his imagination is out of this world. He is great at cleaning up, but we still occasionally find pieces under chairs or in chairs. They are the greatest activity for a young child.