Do you promise not to peek?

Hhmmm… “peek at what”, I hear you ask.

It’s now that I like to start preparing for December. There’s a lot to be done come the first week of December: there’s a whole house to decorate (inside and out), trees to be trimmed, presents to be wrapped, baking to be done…. and the list goes on and on.

Today I am ticking off the Advent calendar.

I think most households have an advent calendar these days to either countdown or celebrate the days of advent in anticipation of Christmas. Although the season of Advent begins on the Sunday closest to the 30th of November, most commercial advent calendars begin on the first of December. Because there are so many variations on the advent calendar, there is one to suit nearly every family.

Handmade Advent calendars have become popular projects with crafty people and today we see them in all shapes and sizes, made from various materials including fabric, felt, paper, wood, small boxes, etc.

I adore this idea by Martha Stewart… is that not the cutest stocking garland ever?

And this one by Pottery Barn (2005) becomes part of the home decor.

There are many great Advent Calendar tutorials available online, so make sure you check them out. Here are just a few to get you started…

Julia from Creative Ribbons has this lovely tutorial here

Jenny from Allsorts has this very cute felt pocket Advent calendar here.

Beth at ‘It is what it is’ has adapted these brown paper lunch bags and shows you how to do it here.

  

I’ve just finished making some new Advent bags, which I used an ink transfer method and my own graphic to make new look bags for our home (you’ll have to wait until Christmas is installed to spy these little babies). They will be attached to a large greenery garland that is strung under our mantle in our lounge room.

We’ve had many different handmade advent calendars over the years and in earlier times, I had to be pretty creative in how I kept it out of the eager chubby hands of little ones. We did have the one mishap, which I’m sure most families experience at some point, where Princess Jess dragged a chair up to the hanging advent calendar and ate the chocolates from all the pockets. Of course she told me she hadn’t but the chocolate dripping out of the corners of her mouth was a bit of a giveaway… [giggle]. I’m pretty sure it was about that time that we stopped filling the Advent pockets with sweets.

My girls are now teenagers and we still love the advent countdown. Each year we have some kind of pocket, pouch or box etc, which I fill with a surprise the night before – even teens have been known to peek in the pockets before the day!! Now-a-days we have a variety of daily ‘surprises’ ranging from a sweet, a small gift, an activity, or a special note. It all adds to the exciting build up and anticipation of this special season.

Here’s some of the activities we have used:

· Keep tonight free as we are staying home to watch our favourite family Christmas movie together.

· Today we are going to buy a Christmas gift to put under the charity tree.

· Tonight we are taking a drive to see the Christmas Lights.

· Let’s bake Christmas treats for our neighbours today.

· There’s a box under the Christmas tree that says ‘Open Now’… it will contain small gifts like a Christmas mug or Christmas T.shirt etc.

· Sometimes there is just a note that contains a special memory and photo from a past Christmas.

No matter what you put in your advent calendar, you can be sure that kids big and small will relish the daily ritual of checking the days off until Christmas day.

Okay crafty ladies, with only two weeks until December, you’ll need to attend to the Advent project now. When you are done, don’t forget to share it with the rest of us. Maybe you can also make some suggestion for treats for the Advent calendar.

It’s now less than 6 weeks to Christmas, so definitely time to step up the Christmas preparations. Have you noticed how the shopping centres are getting busier now and checkout queues are longer. It’s at about this point that most people recognise that the Christmas season really is just around the corner and the panic begins.

That may be most people, but not those of us following Simply Christmas.

Have you been ticking things off your checklist? At this point we should be finishing up handmade gifts, as any overseas gifts need to be posted next week. Are your cards written and ready to post?

Let me know how you are doing. I’ll be  popping around to all the blogs to see what you are up to over the next few days and can’t wait to see all Christmas preparations.

Hugs ~ Kerryanne