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I’ve been saying for years that I was going to create an advent calendar for the girls in the days leading up to Christmas, but this is the first year I’ve actually made it happen. Not only do I think it’s fun for them to have some little gifts to look forward to each day, but it is such a wonderful way to remind the girls of the reason we celebrate. Ella & I went shopping a few weekends ago and picked up clothespins, bakers twine and kraft paper lunch sacks. I snuck off to the dollar aisle and grabbed twenty-five days worth of tiny treats while she wasn’t looking and plan to alternate those between she and her sister.
My dad gave me a binder of stencils he’s had since he was a boy and I love finding fun ways to use them! I could have easily used stickers or lettered the numbers myself, but I loved the size and font of these stencils and I love that they remind me of my dad! We used a red craft marker to draw the numbers on each of the lunch sacks and let them dry a few minutes before moving on.
I always have a spool (or seven) of baker’s twine in our crafting stash, so I found some red twine to coordinate with our numbers. Using a large black frame that’s been standing in my laundry room for at least six months, I strung the twine across and secured with thumbtacks. The frame itself measures approximately 30×50 inches and was the perfect size to keep all of our packages organized!
The toys I bought were really inexpensive items that the girls are always begging for in the clearance section. For Ella (5), we got tiny notepads, princess pens, stickers and playing cards. Sophie (20 months) got Christmas socks, wooden ornaments for the tree and a little baby doll that she couldn’t live without. There are 12 items for each girl and something for each of them to open on Christmas Day. We could have easily fit two items per bag or hung two bags per clothespin, so do what works best for your family! We decided that alternating would be an excellent way to facilitate sharing between sisters. We’ll see how that works out…
I alternated the items in the paper sacks (Ella’s on odd days and Sophie’s on even ones) and clipped them to the twine with clothespins. The rows aren’t all the same distance apart, but some items were small and others needed more room — I tried to sort them by size to make it easier on myself. For this year, we propped the frame up on a piece of furniture that was relocated thanks to the arrival of our Christmas tree. It is certainly tall enough to sit on the floor and lean, but Soph is much too active these days for that much temptation. Maybe next year!
I could not be happier with how it turned out and the girls can’t wait until Thursday to open their first treasure. The plan is to read a few verses from the Bible each day during December so that we can recite the Christmas story by the end of the month (remember last year?). Once we’ve practiced our verses, they’ll get to open that day’s gift. We can’t wait to get started and report back!
You can always shop the dollar spot at Target or head over to Five Below, but if you’re anything like me, you’d rather press add to cart. Here are a few of our favorite filler items from Amazon to mix in with your dollar items: Christmas Pez Dispensers | Stickers | Uno Cards | Crayons | Water Wow | Watercolors | Shrinky Dinks | Play Doh | Hot Wheels | Charades | Math Dice | Plastic Bugs | Calico Corners Animals | Flashlight | Perler Beads | Fidget Toys | Little Lizards | Sidewalk Chalk | Stamp Markers | Wooden Giraffe | LED Fingers | Trick Gum | Finger Puppets | Press On Nails | Furry Key Chain. Check out other great advent calendar ideas here.
