Cute fabric, lettering and pockets. Do you know how many advent calenders I "added to cart" in the past month? Sorry, Anthro, I love you, but I just couldn't do a $50 pocket-covered curtain. I wanted something with big enough spaces I could really get creative with little treasures for the kids, without breaking the bank.
I turned to Pinterest, but I don't sew.. I can use iron-adhesive and maybe a attempt to get a straight edge cutting some fabric, but really, I'm pretty helpless in that department. Then procrastination crept in - I kept thinking I'd magically come across the right one at the right time for the right price. Nope.
I had these adorable North Pole Express stickers I'd picked up last year and wanted to put those to use. So I started thinking envelopes would be cute. But I wanted to hang them from something.. I wanted more greenery in the house.. you see how this idea came to be..
Grabbing some greens from the trees in the back yard.. a few low snippets from the Christmas tree.. find a branch the dogs hadn't chewed on too much.. And we were ready. Kinda.
I only have 15 white & cream colored envelopes. I dug around the closets to seek out some other cute holders, but ended up grabbing some brown gift bags & wrapping paper to create my own envelopes & packages.
I made a list of all the fun things I wanted to do in December. I didn't want this to revolve around candy or treats, but to be a little more family-oriented. Activities I could do with the kids during the day, or something to do in the evenings as a family.
I mixed in some dollar store finds like bubbles, crayons, festive stickers, some glitter for reindeer food & a couple candy-canes.
This can be totally personalized. Writing this now I just keep thinking of fun things I could have included.. winter mittens, festive socks, mini game sets, figurines, nail polish (we do have some set aside for Aria's stocking).
You could make this a book-a-day. Bible versus. A scavenger-hunt. Game pieces to play on Christmas. Literally, so many ways to do this.
So here's a list of our advent activities this year:
It came together pretty quickly, the most tedious part was just tying it all on the branch.
Are you doing an Advent calendar this year? What are your traditions? Or are you trying to establish new traditions?
Happy December 1st!
xoxo,
McKenzie
