THE Advent Calendar

I grew up looking forward to the first day of December with much anticipation- because my mom would hang up a hokey craft looking similar to this (but of course ours was better). :) Everyday leading up to Christmas my siblings and I would take turns pulling out an felt ornament from it's pocket and deciding where to put it on the tree. It was so exciting to get the day that had the ballerina or the rocking horse and you were most lucky of all if your day was the last and you got to put the star on the tree. I've been wanting to make a special Christmas advent calendar for many years now. I have a sketch book filled with ideas of what the different ornaments would look like and have had a pile of felt stashed away waiting for me to actually do it. At times it was going to be a tree like my mom's and at times I was turning it into a nativity type scene where everyday you'd put a different animal or person on until the last day you could place baby Jesus in a manger. I even have patterns of cross stitch characters that could be put with the manger scene.

I had also considered different kinds like these two. All I knew is I wanted to make it myself and I wanted it to be something magical my children could anticipate every year.

This year I got more serious about it. I decided to locate a pattern somewhere and put feelers out with friends. My sister came across this at Pottery Barn's website. Not 24 hours later I drove 40 miles to the nearest Pottery Barn Kids and bought it to use as a start for a pattern. Kristie has joined in the fun as well. We are splitting up the pockets to make and she has even ordered herself an embroidery machine (so jealous!) It costs with tax close to $75 at Pottery Barn and Krisser and I are making them for a little under $25 each and having lots of fun at the same time. I hope these get done before the first of December. We're sure trying.

Here's another photo of it. It is just too cute! Although I do love the idea of a simple one that is just hanging ornaments up I didn't know how I could refuse making this. Everyday there is a little gift in there. What I think I will have to do is put a clue in there everyday leading our kids to a different place to find a little treasure instead of stuffing it with 3 presents in each pocket. We are going to put a bit more detail into it and make pretty stitching around each pocket and more embellishments. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Just for fun here is a cute idea for Halloween. Well you know us... if we are going to have an advent calendar for Christmas, we better have one for Halloween too. I love the Christmas one so much more, but this is a good place to start for ideas for a Halloween one.