Monday, November 29, 2010

How To: DIY Advent Calendar

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration full of delicious food and family fun - I hope you did too, but I'm glad it's over so I can start getting ready for Christmas!

First on the agenda was an advent calendar worthy of our new digs. In years past we've usually gone with the $1.99 24 windows of chocolate, picked up from Trader Joe's or Target, but this year I wanted to do something more visual and exciting for the kids. I've seen lots of great ideas, like these featured on Oh Dee Doh a few weeks back, but when I spotted these little paper bags on my last trip to Michael’s, I got my own idea.



I created a word document the size of the bags (3.5 by 6.75 inches) and added the numbers 1-24 (one on each page of course) in Baskerville Old Face font in size 200, but you could pick whichever one you think is right for your home or décor. 



Then I started printing. I’ll be honest – feeding each bag into the printer and then sending the next page to print was time consuming, and at least a few bags got jammed along the way, but the end result was worth it.  



I couldn’t fit all 24 on our mantle, so we did two rows of 12 and angled the front row so you could see the rest peeking out. Once we hit the 13th we'll switch the two rows and move the back to the front.





Starting on Tuesday night after the kids go to bed I’ll be tucking a small prize into each one – cheap things like packs of gum, little finds from the Target dollar spot, and of course chocolate. It’s such a fun way to welcome the holiday season and build up anticipation to the big day on the 25th. 

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