Getting Crafty With It - Homemade Advent Calendar

So, I was feeling crafty this weekend, and being the Christmas fanatic that I am, I decided to make a homemade Advent Calendar for the upcoming holiday season. Let's start by giving credit where it is due, I got the idea and inspiration mainly from two different websites that showed similar projects. My own project is an amalgamation of ideas from both sites:

www.kiddley.com

www.craftlog.org

My first step was to obtain the necessary 25 matchboxes for this
project. Not as easy as you might think, though not especially difficult either. I initially tried my luck at the local craft store, but they didn't have matchboxes. The closest thing that they did have were similarly sized little gift boxes, but at over a dollar a piece I would have rapidly blown my budget. The very helpful lady that worked there suggested that I try the nearby dollar store.

Heeding her advice, I headed over there and was pleased to find that they sold packages of six little matchboxes for merely a dollar, much more to my of liking. The only problem now, what to do with all of the leftover matches. I settled on dumping them out the boxes, which resulted in a funny looking mini mountain of matches.

I used some long neglected scrap booking paper (purchased years ago on a momentary whim to become a scrapbooker, which never really came to fruition) to wrap up the outsides of the boxes. To make this easier I cut a stencil out of cardboard to the exact sized rectangle that I needed to cover the boxes. I decorated the boxes with some stickers and also labeled each with a number to indicate each of the days of December leading up to Christmas.

Next, I printed up and cut out little strips of paper containing Christmas or holiday related tasks and activities, folding them up and placing them inside of each of the boxes. I checked over the calendar to make sure that certain tasks fit on specific days, but for the most part you can be pretty flexible with this. I plan on adding some small goodies to each box as well, if I can find ones that are small enough to fit. I placed them all in a cookie jar and positioned it on the mantle. Final step, stand back and admire my supreme craftiness. I must say, I am pleased with the way that this turned out.

My list of Christmas/Holiday/Just-plain-fun activities is as shown below:

1. Write letters to Santa Claus
2. Paint everyones' toenails
3. Make paper snowflakes to decorate the house
4. Have a Christmas movie night
5. Make and hang edible gifts for the squirrels and birds
6. Enjoy hot chocolate with all of the trimmings
7. Choose some puppets to use to tell the bedtime story
8. Fold origami decorations for the Christmas tree
9. Dance and sing to Christmas music
10. Give everyone crazy hairstyles
11. Make decorations for the tree
12. Play a game in the backyard (or hot chocolate party if it is raining)
13. Pick out a nice Christmas tree, add decorations, and consume eggnog
14. Make a list of things that we are thankful for
15. Bake a batch of Christmas cookies
16. Have breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, etc.)
17. Finish Christmas Cards for family and friends
18. Go star gazing or take a night time walk with flashlights and check out the Christmas lights
19. Go to see the Nutcracker Suite Ballet
20. Family Games Night
21. Bake another batch of Christmas cookies
22. Wrap a toy and bring it to a charity Christmas tree
23. Dress up fancy for dinner time
24. Prepare a special Christmas Eve treat for Santa Claus
25. It's Christmas! Remember that you have a family that loves you and that's the most important gift of all.

If anyone enjoyed this post or has done something similar that they would like to share, I would love to hear from you!