RACK Your Brains!**

In an attempt to prevent chocolate overload, many people now choose an Advent Calendar which has family activities. Things to do, not sugar to eat!

I particularly liked the idea of having 24 Random Acts Of Christmas Kindness. You have a list like the one below, then each day try and do one of the things on the list and tick it off. Here’s a sample list of the sort I mean.

1. Give up your place in a queue to the person behind

2. Take a Christmas card into a shop you use regularly and thank the staff for all their help

3. Tell jokes to make someone smile.

4. If you buy a coffee, pay for the person behind you in the queue as well

5. Send a thank you note to someone at Church who has worked hard all year.

6. Wash somebody else’s car for them

7. Offer to child-mind for a young Mum so she can go Christmas shopping in peace

8. Bake a cake or biscuits for a neighbour

9. Give someone a hug, just because…

10. Send a card to somebody who gives up their Christmas Day to provide a lunch for others [and include a £5]

11. Telephone or email an old friend you have not spoken to in a while

12. Donate food to a local food bank, or your church ‘Blessing Bin’

13. Take a hot drink to someone who is standing out in the cold collecting for charity.

14. Put your change into the shop’s charity box in the next time you buy with cash

15. Offer to help a housebound friend with Christmas shopping

16. When you return library books, include a card for the library staff

17. Sweep leaves, move bins, or do another task for a neighbour

18. Pick up at least three pieces of litter on your next walk

19. Make up a box of goods to take to a charity shop

20. Take a some [recent, not dog-eared!] magazines to the waiting room at the doctor or dentist

21. Send a thank you note to someone at Church who has worked hard all year.

22. Donate a can of dog food to the animal shelter

23. Make a Christmas decoration – and give it to someone else

24. Take some sweets or biscuits to the Fire Station or Police Station – they have to work on Christmas Day

Over at Coffee Cups And Crayons you can find some good printables to make Advent Calendars like this. The activities can obviously be adapted to be appropriate for children or adults.

**RACK in this expression can be spelt rack or wrack, the dictionary says.