Although nothing compares to being on a Disney vacation, planning and counting down are definitely the next best thing! My kids love being included in the planning stages of our vacation. They enjoy helping to choose the next resort where we will stay, they each have very strong opinions about what dining reservations we should make, and they get a huge kick out of mapping out our days and creating the attraction itineraries that we will follow. After all of the preparations have been taken care of, we begin gearing up for our departure day with the help of a homemade countdown calendar.
We LOVE crafting Disney countdown calendars! Chocolate and Lego Advent calendars are to the holidays what countdown calendars are to our Disney vacations. We take the entire process quite seriously, like we are working on a final project for school. We discuss ideas for the design during dinner, shop for the craft supplies we need to create it, and eagerly contribute suggestions to improve on our work until it is finally ready to be used. The anticipation of being in the theme parks again, combined with having a tangible piece of evidence that we are that much closer to arriving, is always a thrill!
We’ve created many calendars over the years and have enjoyed them all, but the one we’ve had the most fun with recently is a countdown inspired by NCAA March Madness brackets. We love filling out basketball tournament brackets every spring, and have such a great time seeing how our predictions play out in the weeks that follow. While filling out his bracket one year my husband casually mentioned that it would be interesting to see our favorite Disney characters compete against one another. That passing remark was all it took to get the wheels in my head turning. When it came time for our next vacation countdown later that fall, I put those thoughts to work! I made a list of our family’s favorite characters, printed small photos of each, and organized and glued them onto a foam presentation board. I traced and cut 31 Mickey Mouse heads on construction paper, using a cookie cutter as a stencil, and taped these colorful Mickeys in the space next to each competition. And, voila, we had ourselves a tournament with some Disney flair!
Next up, the most thrilling part of this entire process – the voting. Each evening we peeled one Mickey off and replaced it with a photo of the character with the most votes. Thirty-one exciting (and often drama-filled) days later, we were ready for vacation AND we discovered that our family’s favorite Disney character is Donald Duck!
Since that first bracket-style calendar, we have since put together two more. One for our favorite Disney attractions…
…and the most recent for our favorite Disney, Pixar, and Lucasfilm movies. My husband had an especially fun time with this one by creating regions for all of our movie selections, and seeding each movie within their region – a far cry from my not so professional strategy of just arranging everything in an eye pleasing manner.
We are very eager to design more tournaments in the future! I love the passionate discussions we have before and after our daily votes, and it is so enjoyable to watch the calendar evolve while trying to predict the final outcome. There are also so many compelling topics we have yet to tackle. Disney parks snacks, Disney restaurants, Disney villains, Disney shows and entertainment – the list goes on! The sky is the limit for these fun and lively countdowns, and I can’t wait for the next epic battle in our household!
