Christmas Advents

Yes…your google reader just read that right. This is my last Christmas post for a while…promise. 🙂

So here are my new advent calendars. Compared to my old ones they are a lot less work.

For my last advent calendar, I had little stockings for each day that took up a whole wall/double doors in my kitchen. In it I put something fun to do each day, a scripture and song to read and sing every night, and a service to do. In years past the extra distractions have been welcome. This year {or I should say this last year}…it was a little bit overwhelming.

So this is my solution.

I took my card wreath, changed up the back ground paper, and added some numbered cards with pictures on the back.

The idea is that for each day you flip the card over to reveal a picture from Christmases past and inside the card lists our song and scripture for the night.

I really should have made the cards smaller, but I plan on replacing a few every year so we can get some surprise new pictures that include our family as we grow. So I will make the new ones smaller.

And….

…taking this idea Sandra from Sawdust and Paperscraps helped me put the rest of our advent traditions in this box. I know it doesn’t look like much but I anticipate it getting loved and used quite a bit so I wanted to keep it simple.

Each day there will be a surprise. Either the kids will find something fun to do, a service they can give, or a treat to get.

I plan on the hiding the box on some days in places that give hints as to what is inside.

On other days I thought it would be cool to send them on a scavenger hunt. So there would be a note in the box that would lead to another clue which would lead to another clue and so on, until they reached their “prize.”

The best part… I can tailor what goes in there as we go, just filling it the night before with things that suit us best. If I know it is snowing outside, I can slip in “make a snowman” or if I know we have a super busy day ahead, I can just slip in some chocolate treats the night before.

I am still doing the book advent. That was a great success. It was a lot of work to wrap 25 books before Dec. 1, but totally stress free after that.

If you are looking to see who won the giveaway see the post below.

Have a warm, wonderful day!