advent

I finally got around to making an advent calendar. I've had such big plans for so long to make a super deluxe advent calendar. I have fond memories of one that an aunt of mine had when I was a little girl. It was all embroidered with little animals and stuff, and over each number, there was a little brass ring, where you'd tie a little tiny present, and then with each passing day, you'd get to open another present. So exciting! We'd also sometimes get the little German/Swiss cardboard ones with the little doors that you'd open each day to reveal a little chocolate candy. Also, very fun. 

So of course, I've always wanted to make one for my kids to enjoy. But as I've read other blogs, I realize that there are a number of pitfalls to having/making advent calendars. For instance, its really hard to find 25 little presents that don't suck, and don't cost a lot, EVERY YEAR. One blog I read said that its fun for her (as a parent) for the first two years, and then, especially if you add another kid, and presumably another calendar, it gets really frustrating (for the parent) to find new, exciting, cheap presents for the calendar. That are not junk. Especially if you have political issues/health issues/ecological issues with dollar store stuff made in China. You could easily end up spending between $75 and $100 per child on a toy themed advent calendar.

An of course, the argument against a candy filled calendar is, well, its filled with candy. aka, sugar, which there is enough of during the holidays without adding an extra dose first thing in the morning. So I decided to challenge myself to making a non-toy, non-candy advent calendar. And I also decided not to cruise around the internet looking for ideas first either. And here's what I came up with.

Advent stones! I went outside and found 25 nice little rocks, and then bought a set of stencils and just used a little black acrylic paint to put the numbers 1 through 25 on them. 

I know they don't look very Christmas-y, but we're kind of minimalists in terms of our Christmas decor, so it works for us. You could always use red or green paint if you wanted it to be a bit more festive. 

I also wanted them to work visually in terms of conveing the passage of time. In other words, I wanted the Little Dude to be able to see the days that had passed and the days that were to come. 

So every morning, we go and get a stone out of the bowl and set it up on the edge of the bookshelf. Then we can count the stones left in the bowl to show us how many days it is till Christmas. 

Though I have to admit, he's not that into it. I'm sure that even though I've decided against little toys and candy, so that he has a Christmas experience that is not entirely centered around getting stuff and eating sugar, so as to help him be a more mindful person, he would be totally down with getting a little present every day. As it is, we often forget to check to number rocks until the end of the day. If there was some kind of toy incentive I know he'd wake up in the morning saying "lets check the advent calendar!" Ah well, hopefully he'll appreciate it someday. 

Oh, and the observant among you will notice that there is no '7' in our advent calendar. I ran out of rocks, but that will soon be rectified. 

If you are interested in making yourself an advent calendar (for next year I guess), you can find lots of nice ideas on the internet. For example, Whipup has some nice ones here and here. And there are some cute ones here at Skip To My Lou. And there are some really beautiful ones here at Creature Comforts. Now you have plenty of time to save spools or matchboxes or jars, or whatever you are going to make your next-year's advent calendar with. 

Or you could just keep your eye out for some nice stones. 

Comments

[michele]

I didn't want to do candy or toys either so we did a activity advent. Just simple things that I wrote on slips of paper like read a christmas book or make cookies, for busy days we had things like get a kiss from daddy. It has been fun and my oldest has enjoyed it, she hasn't forget a day yet.

[finger thumb]

That's a really good idea Michele, I'm totally going to try that next year!