My Holiday Traditions- Advent Calendars

I can’t believe tomorrow it’ll be December! Yay!!!! I’m so happy. The Holidays have certainly snuck up fast, but that’s ok because I’m sooo ready now. I’m getting excited for Christmas- it’s my favorite time of the year! I like to stretch it out the whole month of December and try to make it very special for my kiddos. I have a few things I do every year and I thought I’d share them to inspire other moms, aunts & friends to make this Holiday Season extra special for a child in their lives. One of the traditions I started a few years ago is to make advent calendars for them. My very first one was simply 2 egg carton halves cut & glued side by side on cardboard, then I filled each well with a treat or activity & hot glued alternating red & green tissue paper over the holes. I added number stickers & a little yarn for hanging and voila! I had 3 advent calendars. They wasn’t very pretty, but they were homemade & the kids loved being able to have a special surprise to open each day.

Per my usual “do-things-at-the-very-last-minute”- no matter how much I plan ahead of time- I am once again making my boys their advent calendars on November 30th. (One of these years I will have them finished before Thanksgiving- probably when I have grandkids!) Since I don’t have pictures to share of mine yet- I thought I’d share some other simple ones that are easy enough you could join me in making a last-minute advent calendar.

 

My Little Mochi has a great idea to make a simple Advent Calendar with Dentyne gum! Pocket Advent Calendar- merrily created by mylittlemochi

 

Here’s wonderfully easy & awesome Paper Plate Advent Calendar from Filth Wizardry Paper Plate Advent Calendar joyously made by FilthWizardry

 

Another great idea is to make an Advent Bag Calendar by simply numbering paper bags & hanging them up in a line like Christina from Moment to Moment did: Paper Bag Advent Calendar cheerfully created by MomentToMoment

 

Yet another take on a quickly made advent calendar is using envelopes. You could follow d.Sharp Journal’s lead and make a plain White Envelope Advent Calendar with some festive numbers (which are graciously available for free download).Envelope Advent Calendar joyfully shared by dSharp

 

Or make your own Festive Envelope Advent Calendar using old Christmas cards. HomeSpun Threads even shares the envelope template she used.Homemade Envelope Advent Calendar happily made by MyHomeSpunThreads

 

I hope I’ve given you some inspiration to make a simple & fun surprise for someone in your life- it doesn’t even have to be a child! I know many adults would love their very own advent calendar as well.

Well- I’m off to finish my super-simple advent calendar which will not even be as creative as any of the ones I’ve featured. But that’s ok because I’m learning that not everything I do has to be top notch- especially when I take into consideration that I have to make 3 calendars and not much time to do it.  :o)