Advent Calendars

Well, happy first day of winter.  And did you have your advent calendar ready?  Or, like me, where you up to the wee small hours sticking chocolates into little packages.  

I say Advent Calendars (plural) as I have made a number of them this year.  My Little Foxes school's Christmas Bazaar was on the weekend and I was in charge of the craft stall.  As a result I have made 6 advent calendars, 5 for sale (and they sold - Phew!) and one for Little Una and Little Louis Fox. 

The picture above is not my children's calendar, but one that was sold.  I really thought that this one turned out well, so, I thought I would share how I made it.

YOU WILL NEED:

A piece of wood, approx 1m long

24 or 25 pegs

24 or 25 envelopes

garden twine, approx 120cm

2 screws

coloured paper 

glue gun, scissors, numbers

I used a piece of architrave left over from decorating the back sitting room, but you could use any piece of wood at least 10cm or so wide and approx 100cm long.  First paint the architrave, I used pale green emulsion left over from decorating the boot room.  I like to re-cycle as you know.

Then I glued thin strips of paper, the same width, onto each of the pegs.  While these were drying I turned my attention to the envelopes.  

I printed out a set of FREE advent tags from the lovely Rebecca's blog simpleasthat, she has more FREE printables and beautiful and inspiring family photography ideas.  Envelopes were decorated with the same paper used on the pegs, and a number added to each. 

Once dry the pegs were stuck onto the architrave, equally spaced apart, using my hot glue gun.  I added two screws to the back of the wood and tied on the garden twine.

I filled each envelope with chocolate.  You could of course put a little gift in there instead, but I don't give my kid's sweets as a rule so I let them indulge a little at Christmas.  Then, starting with the last number in your advent I pegged each envelope to the wood. Ta Da - Done!

My friend Ann and I have debated if there should be 24 or 25 treats on the advent calendar.  Advent is after all the countdown to Christmas, you get your presents on Christmas day.  What do you think?
And below is the advent calendar I made for my Little Foxes, with Brian the Elf who always arrives along with the calendar.

As Chief Craft Elf for our school's Christmas Bazaar, I looked at a fair few ideas for advent calendars, here are some of my favourites.

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Handmade Advent Calendar

I love advent calendar's, but I hate rubbish chocolate.  One year I fobbed the little foxes off on the Cbeebie's online advent calendar of music and video clips, claiming it was better than getting a sweetie every day.  They were young.  They were innocent.  There is no way they are falling for that this year!

I was working on this month's crafty box, I'd a nice design for a loo roll Father Christmas when I suddenly thought; 'This could work as an advent calendar'.  So, I began collecting loo rolls; 25 of them.  Making white pom poms; 25 of them.  (I've posted on the easiest way to make these - with a fork would you believe.)  I used my design for this year's Mrs Fox's gift tags (which are FREE to download) for the Father Christmas' face - you can download and print 25 Father Christmas faces HERE.

So, here's how you make the advent calendar:

You will need:
25 loo rolls - Never thought I'd get to say that!
red paint
white wool
fork
black pen
string
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stick or bamboo cane - optional
sweets and/or little gifts
glue
scissors
and Mrs Fox's printouts.

First paint your 24 loo rolls red and leave to dry.  While they are drying make 24 pom poms instructions are HERE.  Leave the string you use to tie round the centre of the pom poms long, as you will use this to attach the pom poms to Father Christmas' hat.

Take your red loo rolls and fold them as follows:

Print and cut out the Father Christmas faces and the numbers from Mrs Fox's.  Glue them onto the loo roll and draw the rest of your Father Christmas onto the loo roll with black marker.  Draw one hand holding the number.

Make a small hole with a darning needle in the top of each Father Christmas.  Through the hole thread the pom pom strings and secure to his hat with a double knot.  Next, thread your pieces of string through the top of Father Christmas' hat and knot in a loop.  I cut my string different lengths so Father Christmas could hang at varying heights.

Fill each of your Father Christmas from the leg end with a sweet (I have 2 children and put one for each child in mine).  I put a small gift in the 24th Father Christmas so they have a little something extra on Christmas Eve.  I figured they get so much on Christmas Day that I would make Christmas Eve special instead.

I looped each Father Christmas in numerical order onto a stick that we had found on one of our dog walks and have tied another piece of string onto this to hang it over the mantle piece.  You could use a bamboo cane or you could instead tie the Father Christmases onto a longer piece of string making a garland, or hang the Father Christmases onto wall mounted clothes hooks, over a mirror or a piece of furniture whatever works best in your home.

I can't wait to hang my advent calendar over the mantle piece on Saturday night, when Brian the Elf should also be arriving - more about him follows.

We've loads more crafty Christmas ideas this festive season, so why not subscribe to our blog and/or newsletter.  And some of the best ideas for crafts with children we've distilled into a Christmas Craft Box that we will deliver to your home for £15 +p&p, check out the contents HERE.

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