Our Advent Calendar: Christmas 2010

This weekend I finished making our Advent Calendar for December. The kids have been excited about this so I am glad I got it finished in time!

We usually buy Rosie and Harry the chocolate calendars from The Warehouse but they actually don't taste very nice at all and they don't end up eating them.

This year I had grand plans to make 24 linen stockings with embroidered numbers...a little too ambitious for this time of year. :)

I did some research and found a great economical alternative for this year, which I could guarantee my kids would like. It was super easy to make and very inexpensive.  

While checking out Eighteen25 one night, I found a great link to a simple advent calendar which included a free printable set of numbers. It was perfect and just what I was looking for. Unfortunately I couldn't find a similar shoe organiser at any shops here in New Zealand so I had to come up with another alternative.

I picked up a selection of their favourite treats and bought some small cellophane bags from Trademe for $3.50 to package them up in.

I then printed out and laminated the set of numbers and picked up some wooden pegs from the $2 Shop.

I already had lots of small white paper bags on hand so it was simply a case of assembling them. After being inspired by the Christmas issue of Your Home and Garden magazine I also added a small length of ribbon to each one for some extra detail.

The bags are now all packaged up and ready to go! I haven't decided whether we will string them up with twine or just keep them in this basket as they are...I am leaning towards the latter option at the moment. :)

Rosie and Harry are really excited about the 1st of December rolling around and I am sure this will be a daily highlight for them in the lead up to Christmas.