Celebrating 25 Days of Christmas ~ DIY: Advent Calendars & Christmas Countdowns

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Christmas Countdown Clothespin Wreath from Contributor Sarah from Chickie Momma Crafts

Update: This is a post that I shared last year for the first time, but I wanted to update it with a few more ideas for all of you! I will be sharing some more specifics on some of the 25 Days of Christmas activities we did as a family with you, too!

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Now that Thanksgiving is finished, it’s time to start preparing for Christmas . I don’t know about you, but I find that Christmas just speeds by every year & every year I’m left wishing we’d done more of the fun, family activities instead of getting caught up in the rush of shopping, baking, etc.  So, the last few years, we’ve tried to be more intentional in spending time as a family and slowing down to really enjoy this season.  We want the focus for our kids to be on the real reason for the season, celebrating the birth of our Savior.

So I thought I’d share a fun tradition that we will be doing this year called the 25 Days of Christmas (many people also call these “Advent Activities” or “Christmas Countdown”). This is where you pick an activity or craft or go to an event as a family for each day in December (or however many days you choose to do this idea). Your kids will open up the advent calendar to find out what the activity is for that day. It can be simple activities such as read a Christmas book under the Christmas tree or have red & green night where all of your dinner food is in red & green colors. Or you can do more involved activities like go to a Living Nativity or a Christmas play. It’s just taking the time to think about special activities you can do with your kids or as a family. Find a big list of fun activities to provide some inspiration for your 25 Days of Christmas!

I will share with you some different ideas of events & activities you can use for your 25 Days of Christmas. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can just start by doing the 12 days of Christmas or whatever sounds manageable to you. I first learned about the 25 Days of Christmas a few years ago in our MOPS group, but just haven’t been organized enough to do the full 25 days until this year. The first year we just did the 12 days of Christmas & last year it was the 15 days – so I’m ready for the 25 days this year!

Advent Calendars:

The first step  is to come up with a fun idea to display your 25 Days of Christmas Activities or Christmas Countdown.  I’ve been having fun looking for ideas for Advent Calendars on Pinterest so I thought I’d share a variety of different ideas with you. These range from the very simple to a few more elaborate ideas. Most of these are quite frugal, using items you most likely have around your house.

Unfortunately I don’t yet have a picture of the way we display the 25 Days of Christmas as our Christmas boxes are still upstairs, we’ll be hopefully bringing those down tomorrow night or Friday. I went with the super simple approach last year, where I  just bought the two pack of little Christmas stockings at the Dollar Tree.  I then use the free printable Christmas Countdown numbers & cut out all my numbers and glued a number to each stocking. Inside the stocking, we put that day’s Christmas activities. We then let our girls alternate who gets to pick the stocking & read the activity that’s inside. We kept all of the stockings in a box last year just because I ran out of time to find a cute idea, but I think I will try to find a spot on the wall, where I can string ribbon & use clothespins to attach the stockings to the ribbon.

Baby Sock Advent Calendar from Martha Stewart - This is a variation of what we have done in the past. I didn’t use baby socks but actually found mini stockings at the Dollar Store a few years ago (I also have seen them at Walmart). I then strung them by a ribbon over our fireplace the first year. Last year, I kept it very simple & just kept the stockings in a special box & we’d pick out a new stocking every day. {This was a great option for us because I could switch out the activities easily depending on what our schedule turned out like that day} We haven’t yet gotten our Christmas items down (been too busy with Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals); otherwise I’d show you what we used.

25 Days of Christmas Buckets by Missy from Seeking His Grace - Missy actually used a kit from Stampin Up to create this cute & simple way to display their 25 Days of Christmas activities. However, you could find these cute little paper buckets at a craft store like Michaels or Joann’s for a quick & easy way to set up your Christmas Countdown. She just added numbers to the front of the buckets and then tied them onto a long ribbon on the wall. She also added letters to the back to spell out “We wish you a Merry Christmas” so when each bucket is turned over, they get to figure out what it spells on the back.

 Framed Advent Calendar from Thrifty and Thriving – using painted molding (or a painted frame), numbered scrapbook paper or sticker numbers on cardstock, ribbon/string & mini clothespins. This is very cute & is not too labor-intensive but fairly simple.

 Muffin Tin Advent Calendar from Amy at Mom Advice – I love that this is so simple using items easily found at home yet it still turned out super cute!

Wipe – Off Advent Calendar from Make and Takes –  Use a sheet of metal combined with scrapbook paper & create flaps with number. Write down the activities under each flap. Great thing about this calendar is that the activities wipe off if you need to change them & then you can reuse it year after year, too.

There were just so many fun Advent Calendars on Pinterest, so I had to share a few more of my favorites:

• Christmas Countdown Calendar by Simply Frugal Mom – She used a cookie sheet & little metal tins – so cute & I love the little tins – you could put a little treat in there too, if you wanted.
• Christmas Countdown Garland from The Crafting Chicks - They also include a free printable for the numbers, #1 – 25 – these are what I used with our stockings – just printed them out & taped them to our mini stockings…super simple. Love the cute envelopes they used for the garland!
• Advent Calendar using a Shoe Organizer – I love the practicality of this idea – use some cute cardstock paper or envelopes & then clip your advent calendar to the shoe organizer & hang it on the back (or front) of a door. {The only problem would be little hands moving the clothespins or trying to peek – I could totally see that happening in my house}
• Handmade Advent Calendars - If you’re really crafty, then you might want to check out all of these fun ideas for Advent Calendars. I love the little felt pockets – so sweet!
• Paper Chain - The easiest & most frugal idea would be to just create a simple paper chain using construction paper & tape. Then write or tape the ideas for your activities onto each of the  links in the chain.

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Tagged as: christmas