We have an advent house, gifted to us from my mom many moons ago and it currently gets filled with candy by that elf of ours, good old Cornelius. But I wanted something more. I kept seeing such pretty advent calendars on Instagram and it was like, why don't we have one of those!? I also thought it would take a little pressure off of me for the month of December. You know that self-induced pressure... did I miss anything?! Did my kids get to do alllll of the festive activities I wanted them to?? This way, I know we got it covered! At some point during the month!
All you need is some festive string or ribbon, a pen, white paper, scissors and mini clothespins. I got mine here and how cute are they? Love me that whole one day shipping thing! Now I ended up hanging these strings onto an antique drawer that had little to no Christmas decor on it. I know. Who am I? But you could hang them anywhere. On a large frame, mirror, chalkboard, or just a plain wall if you used small command hooks.
I cut the paper into two inch by four inch rectangles. After I folded them in half I used my pen and my handy dandy fake it till you make it calligraphy tip (anytime the pen goes "down" thicken the line) to do the numbers.
I then took to my calendar to see what activities would work where for the month of December. For example I wouldn't chose 'watch a movie' on a school night. And obviously something like caroling is already planned because of the various Scout activities my kids are in. Here is an example of some of the activities I wrote on the inside of these cards:
Make paper snowflakes
Watch a Christmas movie
Read The Christmas Story
Make a paper garland
Write letters to Santa
Make reindeer food
Bake cookies
Make ornaments
Read The Night Before Christmas
Have breakfast for dinner
Drink hot cocoa
Do something kind for someone else
Candylane
Go look at Christmas lights
Make Christmas cards for your teacher
Color a Christmas paper
Gingerbread houses
Take a photo with Santa
Obviously I did a few books and a few movie nights. With popcorn! I tried to be cognizant of what was happening that particular day. I didn't want an activity to come up that I might dread because of our schedule. I.e. gingerbread houses on a night we have church. Something like that. Just a little small thing to do each day to help count down to the Big Night.
What about you? Do you have an advent calendar?