MOMMY, MOMMY, WHEN IS CHRISTMAS COMING?
Years ago, I was at my neighborhood Early Childhood Family Education class that I went to with my 3 ½ year old. We were talking about anticipating Christmas and how difficult it is for our preschoolers to understand when it really is Christmas.
We refer to the Christmas season for 1-2 months prior to the actual holiday when they get to wake up and open presents.
One mother told her son that one morning soon, they would wake him up, say “Merry Christmas” and then go downstairs and open presents. Every day for a week, he woke up in the morning, said, “Merry Christmas,” and wanted to go downstairs and open his presents.
Another mother said she got into trouble when she told her son that it would be Christmas when there was snow on the ground.
As a group of mothers and 2 fathers, we brainstormed about some helpful ideas!
One idea was to make a paper chain for how many days left until Christmas, marking off days on the calendar, having an advent calendar where there is a little piece of candy, small toy, or magnet for each day until Christmas.
These are all great strategies of making the timeline more visual!
