Anne of In Residence is doing a “Holiday Pinspiration” reader feature today. Be sure to
check out this idea and more over at her fabulous blog.
I love the idea of an Advent Calendar. I remember getting one when I was
little, and what a joy it was to open up that little door and be surprised with
a piece of chocolate. I’m sure I wasn’t patient enough to eat only one chocolate
per day (who can do that?) but regardless, the concept always intrigued me.
This year I decided to make an Advent calendar for Aaron
and me. I knew I wanted it to be a little different though, with a combination
of treats and fun activities we can do together. Last year I loved the “12 Dates of Christmas” Elsie and her husband did at A Beautiful Mess, so I decided
to incorporate that idea into our calendar.
I went to Michael's with an outline of what I
wanted, but didn’t really have the specifics in mind. I saw some pine cone and
berry-bedecked garland on sale, so I bought some miniature clothes pins and
ribbon to attach each surprise.
We’ve been having so much fun opening up each day’s
treat, it definitely gives us something to look forward to in this busy and
often stressful time of year.
How to make
your own Advent garland:
Supplies
needed:
garland (any kind will do as long as you can
attach clothespins to it)
paper in different colors/patterns
small paper sacks to hold candy or small objects
(I used 9)
clothespins (I used miniature ones, but larger
ones would work too)
ribbon
stickers to decorate paper and bags (optional)
small candy and treats to fill bags
hole punch
hammer and nails (to hang the garland)
1. It’s easiest if you plan your Advent calendar
before you start making it. You’ll want a combination of dates/activities and candy
or other inexpensive treats. I raided the $1 section of Target for the non-food
treats; no need to spend a bunch of money! I also kept the dates affordable,
things like going to Sonic for a happy hour soda or going on a walk together. I
looked at my calendar when I was planning this out so that we could do the
things that took more time (baking cookies, for example) on the weekends. Write
out each day’s treat or activity, from one to twenty-five.
2. Using your list, count the number of days you
have with activities (I had 16). You will need one piece of paper for each. I
just took construction paper, folded it in half “hot dog” style and then cut it
into equal pieces. On the outside, write the number of the day, and on the inside,
write the activity. Decorate it as you please.
3. For the remaining days, write each day’s number
on the outside of a small paper sack. Fill the sacks with either candy (one per
person in your household) or an inexpensive gift. Fold down the top of the
sack, punch a hole, and then string some pretty ribbon through the hole.
4. Lay out the garland on a flat surface, then
arrange all the days in order. Do this so that you can get an idea of how to space
out the papers and bags.
5. Hang the garland on a wall, making sure there’s
space beneath it.
6. Going in order (I suppose you can go out of
order, but don’t tell me about it!) attach the paper days with clothespins, and
tie the sacks to the garland with ribbon.
7. On December 1st, start counting down
the days until Christmas!
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