Or “the advent calendar we made with stuff we found around the house.”

Growing up we always made a paper chain to mark how many days were left until Christmas, and it was just thrilling to visualize the countdown. I love the advent calendars I’ve seen on Pinterest, but didn’t want to spend a lot on supplies. So this is what we came up with!

We used a big ol’ stick we found outside, butcher’s paper to wrap the little treats/trinkets for each day (you could also reuse paper grocery bags for the same look), ribbons & hemp string to decorate & hang the wrapped gifts. The numbers we cut out with our Cricut machine, but you could totally cut or draw something freehand. And Landon got some sort of wall mounting thing to secure it to the wall, because once we put it all together that thing is heavy!

Kaden loves it. Except for the part that he only gets to open one each day :-/We wrapped up some little snacks (boxes of raisins, candy canes), & got some fun little Christmas things at Target for the gifts (stickers, stamps, mostly from the dollar spot.) This was today’s, a make your own gingerbread ornament kit. How cute are they?
Merry Christmas everyone 🙂