Christmas Craft #2- Christmas Countdown Calendar

This year I decided that I wanted to incorporate more family tradition into the holiday. I looked online and found sooo many great ideas to put some tradition in place. I found this thing called and Advent Calendar. I'd never heard of this before. I did remember having something like this that counted down Christmas when I was a little girl in school.

I decided that I would love to create something like this with my kids. Not having any money to spend on a ton of new Christmas decorations or art supplies, my mind went to running. I went through my Christmas bins to see what I could find. And like pieces to a puzzle it all began to come together.

So here's what Little Miss calls our Christmas Countdown Calendar:

These were the items I found in my home. A bag of bows, a gold ribbon, and my clothes pins.

We glue sticked the clothespins to our bows.

Here they all are.

Then I found these gift tags. Perfect for our numbers! I used a silver, blue, red, and green Sharpie to add the numbers.

I tied the ribbon into a nice bow and thumb tacked it to the wall.

Little Miss was in charge of handing the bows.

Papa Son had a little lesson in number identification mixed in as well.

He found it!

Our calendar in progress...

The finished product!

Silliness...

Goofs!

We started our countdown a little late. It began on the 8th of December. I used mini Post-It notes to add our tasks. Here are the tasks that we included.

25 (18) Days to Christmas Countdown:

8. Story Nite
9. Christmas Cards Part 1- Hand prints on post cards
10. Christmas Cards Part 2- Jewels and feathers
11. Christmas Movie, Ice Cream & Hot Chocolate- The Polar Express
12. Papa Son's Christmas Program
13. Family Game Nite
14. Christmas Candy From Mommy
15. Story Nite
16. Little Miss's Christmas Program
17. Make a Donation- 15 Items
18. Story Nite
19. What God Wants for Christmas- #1
20. What God Wants for Christmas- #2
21. What God Wants for Christmas- #3
22. What God Wants for Christmas- #4
23. What God Wants for Christmas- #5 & Christmas Lights and Hot Chocolate
24. What God Wants for Christmas- #6 & Family Dessert & Game Nite
25. What God Wants for Christmas- #7

What does your family do to countdown Christmas? What are your family traditions?

***Was going thru my blogroll and realized today is Thrifty Thursday. So I figured, yes it's*** mid-July (the 19th), but I really loved this craft and thought it was worth sharing.  


I've linked this post to

There are really great money saving ideas!!! Go check 'em out!

Miracles & Blessings,