Rushing. Shopping. Baking. Wrapping. Mailing. Hosting. Traveling. Decorating.

If we’re not careful, the Christmas season can race by in a blur that finds us on December 26th wondering what on earth just happened.

Unless we’re intentional.

Intentionality. That’s our family goal each Christmas season.

This year, we have enlisted a helper in our goal of intentionality: Adventure Santa!

Do you ever wish you had more quality family time -and less hectic frenzy!- during the holidays? Adventure Santa to the rescue! Adventure Santa is a new Christmas tradition that helps keep active families acting together. Check out our experience an…

We received a complimentary Adventure Santa kit for the sole purpose of sharing our experience.

Meet Adventure Santa

Adventure Santa is a plush doll representing Santa returning to his more adventurous and simpler, pre-red suit days, and inspiring families to do the same.

The Adventure Santa Kit includes a children’s book explaining the story of Adventure Santa, an Adventure Santa plush doll outfitted in hiking boots and a backpack, and notecards for adventure instructions.

How it works:

Adventure Santa leaves a note in his backpack with an activity for the family.
Parents can place Adventure Santa where the kids can find him easily, or hide Adventure Santa for more fun.
When kids find Adventure Santa and read his note, the family completes the adventure together!

Some of our Adventure Santa activities:

Have a Christmas carol lip sync contest and dance party.
Do a Christmas photo shoot, photo-booth style. (Can’t show pics of this one; it’s going on our Christmas card!)
Using ingredients already in the kitchen, invent a new flavor of hot chocolate.
- Winning flavor: orange & peppermint hot chocolate - invented by Mag
- Runner up: caramel & cayenne hot chocolate - invented by Homer
Cover a canvas in Christmas-colored splatter paints.
Decorate scooters with battery-powered Christmas lights and tour the neighborhood after dark.

Our 8-1/2 year old’s reaction:

Mag knows “the truth” about Santa Claus, but that hasn’t stopped her from immersing herself in the magic of this Santa iteration. The minute we opened the box and read the story, Mag was already asking how soon Adventure Santa would leave her a note!

Fortunately, he left her a note that very first night. And even though our first Adventure Santa activity was fairly basic -decorating the house, which we would have done anyway-, Mag was completely enthralled that Adventure Santa had appeared to tell us to do it.

Mag ends each day asking if we think Adventure Santa come that night. And is excited to look for him each morning. Adventure Santa is definitely a hit with our almost-nine year old!

Our thoughts:

A Santa with hiking boots and a backpack plays right into our favorite things: the outdoors, an active lifestyle, and experiences over possessions. So we loved Adventure Santa right from the concept.

And the experience has matched our expectations.

Adventure Santa is getting us outdoors on weeknights more than we sometimes have done during winter. His presence (and Mag’s excited anticipation for his notes) is also encouraging us to carry out ideas we’ve had in past Christmases but never followed through on. And best of all, Adventure Santa is helping us commit to certain nights as family nights, facilitating a slow-down of the frenzied Christmas pace, and keeping us focused on the non-material magic of the Christmas season.

Where to find Adventure Santa:

Adventure Santa was released in November 2016. He is currently available exclusively at adventuresanta.com

Happy active holidays!

Fav tools for a fun Adventure Santa experience:

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