advent calender

Dec 9, 2009

I love advent calenders. I have always wanted one, but could never find one I loved. I have searched for one for our family for the last 16 years. Searched! Never have I found one that I was willing to shell out the money for. So, last year, I made one. It is still not perfect and I need to change the way it hangs, but we love it.

I bought 25 little pictures of Jesus painted by Greg Olsen, Simon Dewey, Liz Lemon Swindle, etc. and mounted them on red cardstock. I tied a ribbon through the top and hung them on some thick rick-rack with clothespins. They are all turned backwards and each night after we finish our Christmas song, value, and Christmas story for the day we turn one around. It is really fun for the children and gives them a visible way to see how close Christmas is becoming.

I want to make a piece of wood with little nails in it to hold the pictures, but that didn’t happen last year and its not happening this year, so we will make do with the rick rack and clothespin design for now.

I absolutely love this advent calender and wish I could hand sew well enough to make it, but it would probably take me the rest of my life and would turn out with LOTS of errors.

I also saw this idea recently and have entertained the idea of having my friend Cami cut the vinyl for me.

What do YOU do for an advent calender at your home?