For the last five years, I’ve purchased and used a different type of Christmas advent calendar. With one kid, even two kids, wrapping up the little trinkets in each pouch or stocking was easy. But add a couple more kids into the mix and you have no desire to have 24 more little things in your house. I even thought about writing out the Christmas story in 24 parts, but that’s just a lot of work.
And while I love the ones that just open up to show pictures or Bible verses, we just can’t seem to stop the littler ones from opening up the other windows, rendering the entire thing completely useless after the first few days.
So this year, I finally took the cue from my fellow mom of many Chris Jordan of Notes from the Trenches and am doing what I think might be the most brilliant idea for an Advent calendar ever.
Last year, I read Chris’ Christmas Book Advent Calendar idea about wrapping up 24 Christmas books, all of which she had collected over the years, and letting the kids open up one a day until Christmas. She’d read the books with them as a family with hot chocolate and marshmallows, and then, I assume, pack the books away until next year.
Brilliant, huh?
The kids and I hunted down all our Christmas books, which actually totaled a lot more than I thought we had, and then we headed off to the bookstore to buy the rest (hooray for my Barnes and Noble teacher discount card). It was the perfect time of year because all the cool holiday story books were all in one place for me to snatch up.
If I had thought about this more in advance, I would have asked the relatives to send us a couple of Christmas books every year, or even just this year. And I imagine that depending on how long you can borrow books from the library, you could wrap those up and not even have to purchase them.
I’ve spent the last few nights wrapping up books and I can’t wait to surprise the kids tomorrow morning with the big basket. Like every year, they’ll each take their turn opening a book until we reach December 25th. But what I love most is that this option allows us to enjoy something we already appreciate: books! And, it gives us some much needed time as a family, which is what I think the holidays are really all about.
Tell me, what do you use for your own Christmas Advent Calendar? (Oh, and if you’re looking for more ideas, we’ve got a ton of cool advent calendars on my other site Cool Mom Picks).
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I do this! AND a tip for those who don’t have enough books, I did it all with library books in the beginning. Over the years we’ve collected our cherished favorites (Jan Brett’s books, Julie Vivas Nativity, Sunbread on Yule, as well as local writers and illustrators) but this does not have to cost a cent!
Oh great! Hooray for libraries!
I love the book idea, but have never done it myself. Our Christmas advent calendar is a large poster-size piece of felt with a pathway that winds zig-zag upward from the bottom to the top. The pathway is numbered 1-24. There are simple felt additions along the way like little buildings or palm trees. There is a felt figure that is Mary, Joseph, and a donkey, and they travel the pathway, moving one space each day, until they get to #24 where there is a stable and an empty manger. (They are backed with velcro, they stick right to the felt easily.) Hiding on the back of the poster is a tiny baby Jesus, who we then put in the manger when Mary and Joseph finally get there, and it is time for Christmas. Each child takes a turn to move the family along the pathway. No clutter, keeps our religion and purpose at the fore-front, and reusable every year with no effort!
This is an absolutely fantabulous idea!
This is genius! We are doing a Playmobil advent calendar right now, mostly because each day has a few little pieces so everybody can participate in getting it set up. But, uh, did I say “little pieces”? EVERYWHERE! I bet I could lay my hands on 10 Christmas books without even trying, and there are probably dozens more in my mother-in-law’s basement. Totally doing this!
We don’t have an advent calendar since Christmas isn’t a religious holiday for our family. It’s just cultural (Santa and snowmen and reindeer, no baby Jesus).
Maybe I could make up some kind of countdown calendar for the kids. I had started to make one years ago. A fabric Christmas tree that would be hung on the wall with 25 buttons on it. Each day we’d put another small ornament on it. But I never finished it. Maybe I could knit one.
There’s no way we could afford, nor would I have the time, to have gifts for them on a calendar. Even 25 books would be way too expensive for us. There would be zero dollars left for Christmas gifts. As it is, unless my dad sends up money to get them something from him and Santa, they’ll be getting just 1 small gift each. It’s all we can afford this year (probably a DS game for each of them). They’re going to be really disappointed.
My husband’s already signed up to work almost all of his days off this month to hopefully earn a few extra hundred dollars for Christmas but we won’t be able to shop until the 20th OR they have to wait until January to get gifts. Should be interesting.
I really love this idea! As a former elementary school teacher (and general reader-nerd) I adore books and particularly kids books!
When I was growing up, my dad made a house-shaped advent box-calendar-thing. There are twenty-four little doors, and each day my mom wrote a holiday-themed activity on a tiny slip of paper. The four of us kids took turns opening the doors, and we would all participate in the activities. Some activity examples– decorating the Christmas tree, driving around and looking at light displays, drinking egg nog, singing carols around the tree, reading Christmas stories, a treasure hunt for a new book hidden somewhere in the house, making advent candle holders out of salt dough, opening gifts from out-of-town relatives, and so many other things! I so love these memories! This is what made Christmas for us.
When we got married, a family friend (who had also made an advent-house-box for their family) gave us our own set of doors. So far I have just filled it with candy for my husband (he’s not into daily Christmas activities
but when we have little ones, I look forward to sharing the excitement and anticipation through this!
This is a great idea! I have a metal tree with 24 little magnetic tins that stick to it. Inside each one will be something to make or do, various Christmas activities. Like cut down our tree, make Christmas cookies, tickets to see a play, make paper snowflakes, hot chocolate and outdoor fire night… Along with a few gold chocolate coins. It keeps me from the tiny toys, or money route and gives us a countdown and something fun to do everyday!
I made our Advent calendar this year after drooling over the cute one from Pottery Barn last year. http://nolitamorgan.blogspot.com/2011/11/advent-sure.html
We didn’t want to have a bunch of trinkets so we have activities stuffed into our calendar and each kid gets to pull the Adventivity when it’s their turn. Their grandparents also sent them a chocolate countdown calendar so they get chocolate too. We’ve had a blast and are enjoying the 25 days of Christmas.
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