The Advent Calendar | Day 1
Opening up the advent calendar has always been one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. It's always so fun to see what's behind that little flap. I've always had a simple paper advent calendar that depicts some sort of holiday scene, but recently advent calendars have become even more awesome. Lots of companies have released calendars that give you a little sample size of their products behind each door. There are pop-up books filled with advent calendar joys. There are even playmobil and lego advent calendars that create whole holiday scenes. For the last couple of year's I've even found a lot of fun in online calendars as well.
This year I made my own advent calendar, and not to toot my own horn, but I think it is pretty great. I wanted it to be a decorative feature, involve nice Christmas sentiments and have some sort of surprise each day. I decided to make cute numbered pouches and filled that with unique quotes, Christmas-y suggestions, song lyrics, and other facts, as well as handmade Christmas ornaments (cinnamon ornaments, cornstarch dough ornaments, felt ornaments, cross-stitch ornaments, glitter animal ornaments). I arranged some pretty branches and sprigs of holly from the yard in a vase then hung the pouches on them. Each day my family and I will open a pouch, read the message and hang the ornament in place of the pouch. By the 25th, we should have a beautiful display. If that's not quite for you: there's a ton of inspiration for DIY advent calendars on Pinterest (check out my board here). And Fleur DeForce has a really simple, quick tutorial on her channel that I suggest you check out if you are looking to make something ASAP, so you don't fall behind in all the advent fun.
If you don't have the time to make your own advent calendar here's my suggestions for those that you can buy right now!
Traditional: The Forest Friends Christmas House Advent Calendar
Deluxe: Villeroy & Boch Porcelain Advent Calendar (expensive but beautiful!)
Chocolate: Trader Joes 24 Days Til Christmas Advent Calendar (I'd go directly to Trader Joe's though)
Fillable: Target Whimsical Advent Calendar
Product Focused: The Body Shop Beauty Advent Calendar or TopShop Jewellery Advent Calendar.
Computer: Jacquie Lawson's Advent Calendar-- this one needs a little explanation. It's a virtual themed advent calendar that gives you a video, game, song, etc. every day as the Christmas-y scene comes to life around you. This is my 4th year buying one. This year's theme is Christmas Market and it's only $4.00. Pretty great. Check out the trailer on the site.
Tell me about your advent calendar plan in the comments or using #MoreThanThe25th to connect with me on Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, etc. The links are below!
