It is that time of year already….hot chocolate, Christmas music playing in the back ground, Christmas trees and all their beauty, the naughty or nice list, and the thoughts of what gifts will be bought for all your loved ones. I easily can fall into that trap of being caught up with all the gift giving, that I forget the greatest gift of all: The birth of Jesus! This Christmas Advent Calendar was just perfect for this.
I normally grab an advent calendar for my two older kids from the local toy store (love local stores!). It is your basic pop out chocolate advent calendar: a piece of chocolate for each day leading up to Christmas day. No concept of the true meaning of Christmas.
The perfect time to stress the true meaning of Christmas is now. We have always had our Nativity scene out and read all the Christmas Story books…even singing happy birthday on Christmas day to Jesus. I wanted to go a little deeper and add a verse for each day on their advent calendar. Each verse connects with the next to slowly share the story of Christmas, leading up to the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day!
Now for my DIY Advent Calendar. I was able to design how I wanted it to look, including what trinkets/candy each day would give, including a special verse for my kids to hear and read. The true meaning of Christmas will be thought upon each day leading up to Christmas.
I found this advent calendar to be very easy! You can alter it to fit your home and your kids. I bought majority of my trinkets/candy from the Dollar Tree. These packs mostly came in bulk, which made it perfect for splitting up among other advent bags. For Day 24, I wanted to have a special surprise. I had an extra baby Jesus figurine that I placed into the Day 24 bag. I found these bags at Michaels. Any type of treat bag will work though! I luckily found the twine and clothespin set at Target for $3, #win! If you can’t find this at your local Target, you can use any type of twine/string and clothespins.
The day tags were at Michaels. Again, you can use any tag for the day label (even could use a sharpie to write on the bags themselves). I hand wrote out each verse and slipped them into the advent bags. To make life easier for you all, I have already typed these out! You can print and cut them out 🙂 Christmas Advent Calendar Daily Bible Verses I found a spot that I thought would be perfect for our advent calendar, right next to our Christmas Tree. Belle the cow needed to be covered with wrapping paper before adding the twine, sorry Belle! Push pins were used to attach my twine to the frame.
When my kids got home from school today, they were so excited about their advent calendar…secretly, I am too!
I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!!
Items Needed:
Twine/String
Clothespins
Push pins or 3M Hooks
Treat bags (24)
Trinkets/Candy (~24)
Daily Verses (print here) Christmas Advent Calendar Daily Bible Verses
Day Labeling Tags or use a sharpie
Wrapping paper (optional)
Lindsay says
What an incredible idea! And so pretty!!!