Friday, November 5, 2010

Christmas advent calendar...

A tradition in my family growing up was to make a candy advent calendar. Each night one of us girls took a turn cutting a bundle of candy off for the family to eat after dinner! I LOVED this tradition. I wish I could say that I make it every year, but alas...some years it has been skipped! Not this year! I had some time yesterday and so I decided that THIS year it wouldn't fall to the wayside.

Now I have seen many many cute, elaborate advent calendars...super cute...AND super time consuming. This one is amazingly simple and you can do it from start to finish in under 30 minutes! Plus the kiddlets can help too!

Here is what you will need:

  • a roll of cling wrap (I didn't have to go run out and by any...you really don't use a lot)
  • bags of your favorite candy
  • curling ribbon
First step is to separate your candy into 25 piles with 1 piece of candy per person. I did a few less since we are a few days into the month already. We have 5 people in our family who will be enjoying the candy (sorry baby Max...maybe next year). I like to use 5 of the same kind of candy so that we don't have fights over who gets what. I like to make the pile on Christmas day nice and large so that everyone gets several pieces.

Next find a nice long spot and pull out the cling wrap. Don't cut the wrap off yet because you may find you need more or less as you get going. Lay your candy piles onto the wrap leaving space in between each pile.

Fold over one side of the wrap

and then the other side of the wrap.

Next cut lots of 8ish inch long strands of curling ribbon. Start by tying one at the bottom and then work your way up. Make sure you leave space so that you can cut an inch or so below the ribbon each day.

Finally find a door to hang it on. We traditionally hang it on the pantry door in the kitchen!

It is amazing to me how much my kids enjoy these quick simple easy traditions. It doesn't take too much time and yet creates a memory that will last forever. I have so many memories of traditions from my childhood. Traditions that make Christmas...well...Christmas to me!

No comments:

Post a Comment