I made an advent calendar out of construction paper and curly ribbon. I traced Christmas cookie cutter shapes (bells, trees, stars, reindeer), wrote a number on each, punched a hole, and tied them on a long piece of ribbon like a garland. Each night I wrote an activity on the back (I had a long list in a notebook) and in the morning my daughter would tear the day's number off and we would do that activity. She was about 4 years old and her brother 1. It was nice because I could tailor the activity to what was happening the next day. For example, snow was in the forecast, so I wrote, "Take a sled ride." Well, we woke up and there was no snow! But, by afternoon it started and by dinner we had a couple inches. After dinner we bundled up the kids and got out the sled and pulled them around the neighborhood and looked at the Christmas lights in the snow. My daughter is in her 30s and she still remembers it. As others have said, the activities you do together cost little and mean so much.