Our last trip to Disney was in January of this year. My mom and son made all of us countdowns about a month before we were leaving. The ones for the adults (left) had numbers in a ring on them and you pulled off a number a day leading up to the trip. My son’s countdown (right), had rings instead of numbers, and he tore off a ring a day. The best part about it was that he got to help design it and pick who got which count down. Kids usually LOVE crafts, so not only is it a good countdown tool, but a fun project for you and the kiddos as well.
We’ve all seen the countdowns until Christmas where you open a drawer/door each day. These can also be used to countdown your next Disney trip. You can pick small, inexpensive Disney items to put in the drawers. If your child is wanting to start collecting/trading Disney pins, you could give them a lanyard the first day and a different pin each day leading up to the trip so that they will have some to trade when they get there. These pins are pretty expensive (although you can get them a lot cheaper on www.ebay.com), so you may want to do a shorter countdown if you choose to use pins. If you don’t have a drawer/door countdown, you could always have a goodie bag a day with a number on it counting down to your trip. This way you could use bigger items if you wanted.
I don’t know about your child, but my son absolutely loves when the elf comes at Christmas and is always sad to see him go. Your elf could always take a “vacation” from the North Pole and come down to help prepare for your trip. Instead of doing mischief each night, he/she could always leave something you will need for your trip (autograph book, pen, sunscreen, etc.). Remember to do practical items too that you would be purchasing anyway to save money. The kids won’t know or care—all they care about is that the elf is back to visit. And, feel free to get extended family to help with this one. My mom loves to help with my son’s elf, so she was more than willing to cover a few days for me. If you are not familiar with the elf madness, check out one of these sites: www.elf-magic.com or www.elfontheshelf.com to see what this is all about.
If your child is a techie or if you are looking for an app for yourself, there are a TON of countdown apps. Simply go to the iTunes store or Google Play and type in “Disney countdown,” and it will bring up a list of them to install—many of them are FREE. I am a blackberry user, and unfortunately there are no apps through their platform L. Before downloading, be sure and check the user reviews to pick the one that works best.
Vinyl Decals
Vinyl decals, especially those you can write on, are everywhere these days (www.etsy.com has a ton of them). These can be written on with chalk or a pen made specifically for writing on them. The pens are pretty pricey, so I always go for the chalk. Your child can pick one with his favorite character, and you can write on it the number of days until your next trip and let your child update it each day. There are some on etsy that are just the traditional Mickey Mouse ears in solid black that would work great as a countdown. And, the vinyls easily peal off your wall when you or done. Or, if your next Disney trip is just around the corner, so you can just restart when you get home.
Just remember, the trip itself doesn’t have to be all of the fun. Make the time leading up to it fun and exciting for the family too!!!
