Today I wanted to share our advent calendar with you. I remember growing up we had this cute little calendar that we hung up every year to help us countdown to Christmas. It had a picture of a snow covered cabin with a lit up tree in the window, the calendar part of it had little pockets and a cute little mouse that we would move each day. I remember fighting with my brothers over who got to move the mouse each day! I wanted to have something like that for my kids and just couldn't really find one I liked in the store that also didn't cost an arm and a leg!
After much thought, I decided that the kids and I would make one together so it would be special. So we pulled out the felt and got to work! The end result was this cute little thing you see above (well not that little) and my kids LOVE IT, which is what I wanted :)
My kids and I made this super easy advent calendar a couple years ago, so I have no pics of the process but as stated...it is soooooo easy!
What you need:
- Large piece of green felt
- Small pieces of felt in different colors
- Puff paint
- Glue (I used hot glue, but you can use whatever glue you like)
Make it:
1. Start by folding your green piece of felt in half lengthwise (think hot dog style) and trace a tree shape along folded edge. Cut it out and unfold....Now you have a tree!
2. Cut out your star and 24 "ornaments" out of the various colors of felt. We did circles because that was easiest for the kids to cut out, but you can do any shapes you like ;)
3. Place all your ornaments on the tree so you can get the placement right before you glue them down. Once you have it the way you want it glue them down along the edge leaving the top UNGLUED!
4. Use your puffy paint to draw the numbers on the ornaments
...... let it dry
.......fill with treats and activities
.......and your done!
So, so, so easy to do and the kids have fun helping! I like to put a small treat (1 per child) in each ornament along with a different Christmas related activity, we just check it each day starting Dec 1st.
Some examples of fun xmas activities that we do are:
- Write a letter to Santa
- Draw a picture of the North Pole
- Drink hot coco with marshmallows
- Watch a Christmas movie
- Make Christmas cookies
- And so many more.....
