Advent Calendar- Christmas Countdown

I spent today slaving away decorating for Christmas, and thought I'd share a peek of it! I have a LOT more to do, and the rest of my house is a mess because I was crafting and running errands all day. I made a super cute advent calendar, or Christmas countdown, that I'm going to share with you. 

 Hobby Lobby carries these boxes of wooden bingo numbers, at least that's what I call them! I wanted different bags, but couldn't find what I was looking for so I settled on the red and white chevron. Mainly because I am cheap and they had 24 in a bag for only a couple bucks. It is also where I bought the mini clothespins. I used a scalloped punch and white mini cupcake liners that I already had.

I flipped a cupcake liner inside out, so that it would lay a bit flatter when I glued down the gold scallop. Simply glue about a quarter size area on the cupcake liner, and right away, glue the scallop on top and push it down. Then just glue down your numbers.

I don't know what people normally do with dates and advent, because this is my first time, but I just did 1-24. We will start on December 1st. To hang it, I used this gold ball of ribbon that I found in the yarn section at JoAnns. I did three rows of 8 bags and just laid them out on the floor, one at a time, clipping them. I hung the ribbon with pushpins.

What you put in your bags is up to you. I decided on putting a little chocolate candy for each child in the bag, as well as our bible reading for that day, and a fun Christmas activity. That part was actually the hardest of all. I sat down with my calendar, and that helped take off some of the pressure. On days that we already have stuff planned, that's what I wrote on the little paper that I put in the bag. 

Some examples: 

Our charter school has an annual gingerbread making family event at school. I put that in that day's bag. We will be out of town for a few days, so those I skipped. On the day we meet with our teacher before Christmas break, it says "take gift to Mrs. Fischer". We are planning on going to a Christmas play, so that went on that day's card. My girlfriends and I have a big Christmas dinner every year, so on that night I wrote "daddy-daughters date night! Daddy takes you to dinner and to shop for mom". You get the idea. Use your calendar to help you. 

After that, think of your family's favorite activities. I did some like: Drive around and look at lights (x2). Drink hot chocolate. Watch a Christmas movie. Bake cookies. Etc.

You'll notice that the last day is a different bag. You might think that's because it's Christmas Eve, but really my package was just short a bag, so I improvised. Hopefully my kids will love counting down the days!