Note: a previous version of this article first appeared here. 

Even if you’re typically good at protecting your schedule from over commitment and saying no, the Christmas season tends to fill up. There are just so many good options and so few days—parties, service opportunities, children’s programs, gift purchasing and giving, cookie baking, family, school and church commitments—they pile up and before you know it, the magic and joy is buried under the stress. My eldest daughter's birthday is also three days before Christmas, and we have been intentional about making space to celebrate her birthday so she doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Now that she and her younger sister are both in school and involved in after-school activities, our gift list and December are the longest and fullest they have ever been.

I don’t want to be stressed out during the most wonderful time of the year. I bet you don’t either.

So a few years ago, I unwittingly started a new tradition.  I created an advent calendar of activities—all the simple joys I wanted to be sure didn’t get overlooked in the busyness of the season.  I included drinking hot chocolate, taking a drive and looking at Christmas lights, watching Elf, baking cookies, making ornaments, delivering a gift to a neighbor, calling grandparents to sing Christmas carols, “fancy dinner” (little girls in dresses and water in wine glasses)—nothing over the top. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I take a look at our December calendar and match activities with days. Our calendar features paper pockets made of craft paper that hold each day’s activity, so it’s not difficult (or uncommon) to switch activities when plans change.

I’m typically not very good at doing anything for 25 days straight.  I’ve never been consistent with a chore chart or behavior calendar, and typically "bucket lists" end up making me feel like my to-do list is even longer. But, since these activities are so simple, mapped out to match our actual life and all of the things we'd want to be doing anyway, for the last three years, this calendar has been such a gift to our family. It ensures we build in the time to slow down, look each other in the eye, keep our focus and enjoy the magic of this joyous season. We pulled ours out Saturday night, and the girls have been peeking in the pockets ever since.

None of us can wait to do it again this year.

If you decide to make your own, there are no shortage of tutorials on Pinterest to get you going. To make mine, I wrapped a large piece of cardboard in a fabric remnant, then folded and glued pockets made of craft paper to fit my tags (which are actually large gift tags). Make sure you leave a little room for the papers to slide in and out; our number 9 suffered injury and no longer looks as good as the picture.

Here's a list of the activities we included in ours this year (we've had to make slight changes each year) to get you going: 

• Decorate the Christmas tree
• Call grandparents to sing a Christmas song (this covers three days for us, since we have three sets)
• Make paper snowflakes
• Make a list of ten things we are thankful for
• Go to a Christmas party
• Watch Elf
• Make an ornament (this year, we are going to try these wood slice ornaments. In previous years, we've done salt dough and melted snowmen, then given them as gifts)
• Make a surprise for Daddy
• Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Buy a gift for a child in need
• Deliver a card to someone special
• Go to a Christmas concert
• Make a Christmas gift (here's a few to try; they make great teacher gifts!)
• Make a Christmas craft
• Fancy dinner
• Deliver a gift to a neighbor
• Visit Santa
• Buy gifts for your siblings
• Go see the Nutcracker Ballet
• Go Christmas caroling
• Drink hot chocolate
• Take a drive to look at Christmas lights
• Special Christmas nail polish
• Read The Night Before Christmas
• Read the Christmas story from the Bible

However you do it, I hope you're able to fight the busyness and make time for magic this Christmas season!

My firstborn is a princess. She loves reading about them, talking about them, pretending to be one-- you name it. I think we currently have more pink items in our house than I had previously seen in my entire life. This does not necessarily please me.

I know girls dressed up as princesses when I was a kid. I know many of the Disney princess movies came out when I was a kid.  But I'm offended by the marketing machine. Because of all the toys and books-- some of them aimed at infants-- little girls now know all the Disney princesses before they've ever even had a chance to see the movies.  I find their appearance hyper-sexualized, and many of the messages are counter to those we teach our girls. Appearance and size are overvalued, strength of character and independence (except in the most recent of characters), hardly seem to matter at all.  

For these reasons, we've tried to limit the princesses-- particularly the Disney princesses. We try to find a balance between what she loves and what we are trying to teach her.  We have been only modestly successful at this. 

This was the first year we decided to host a birthday party at home, as opposed to a place with a built-in activity, like a gym or bowling alley. Mirabella wanted a "princess party."  We decided to make it a Dress-Up Tea Party. We talked about princesses and how, while dressing up as a princess is fun, real princesses (I use Kate Middleton as an example) don't walk around in fancy dresses all the time.They have a responsibility to help others.

So we decided to collect baby care items for a local non profit and asked our guests not to bring gifts. Mirabella was surprisingly excited about choosing baby clothing for our donation and about our overflowing basket at the end of the party.

My visiting mother-in-law helped me make tiaras and wands out of felt for the girls to personalize, based on these Pinterest finds and made from dollar store headbands.

The girls loved adding sticker jewels to their tiaras and wands and coloring with glittery crayons

We also talked with Mirabella about what makes her friends unique, and Daniel suggested, "They're sort of like superheroes, huh?"

"Yes! Let's make it a Princess Superhero party!" Mirabella cried. 

I found this great tutorial and used it as a guide to recycle large t-shirts into superhero capes.  At the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby, Mirabella poured over iron-on transfers for "super powers" to suit her friends: a guitar for the always-performing daughter of a musician, a cupcake for a particularly sweet friend, a ladybug for a nature lover, and a flamingo for a bird lover.

The girls wore their capes and tiaras to the tea party, where they were served strawberry lemonade, a variety of tea sandwiches (homemade apple butter and cream cheese, roasted red pepper pesto and mozzarella), fruit salad and double chocolate zucchini-carrot muffins that they gobbled without knowing they were healthy. For dessert they enjoyed strawberry mini cakes (based on this fantastic from-scratch recipe) with cream cheese frosting (complete with our first attempt at homemade natural food coloring).

Daniel set up a castle tent in our playroom, where we scattered unconventional princess stories like The Paper Bag Princess, Princess Smartypants, Anook the Snow Princess, The Princess Knight, and Grace for President. We also set out dress-up clothes and accessories and played music for a dance party. 

Being unaccustomed to being in charge of entertainment for a party, we weren't sure how it would go. But after an initial few moments of just looking around at each other and asking several questions like, "Mirabella's Mom, what do we do now?" our little guests seemed to settle in and enjoy playing freely.

So the homemade, at-home princess party was quite an undertaking.  Maybe we over thought the character aspects of princesses.  Maybe the princess' mama is a bit of a feminist, even when it comes to child's play.  But all things considered, based on feedback from our little princess, I think it was a success!