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DIY Holiday Advent Calendars

Published 11.18.2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (10)

by Ellen Luckett Baker

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Looking for ways to keep the kids entertained next week? Create a countdown calendar for the holidays. As a child, our family had an advent calendar each December to count down the days until Christmas. You can read more about the history and religious significance of advent calendars here. For this project, I've created two printable calendars that you can customize to reflect your family's own celebration of the holidays. One calendar is a gingerbread house with 24 days to count down until Christmas and the other calendar is a winter village with eight window openings to celebrate the days of Hanukkah.

Just print out the calendar pages on card stock, let the kids make drawings for each day and color the front piece, cut out the windows with a craft knife and put it together to create a calendar with windows to be opened each day, revealing a new drawing.

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Create your own family tradition by sharing simple ways that you can celebrate each day with your family in a special way by writing down a kind deed or an activity for that day. The kids colored this calendar, but I think I'll also create an activity version with cookie baking, gift-buying for needy families, parties, and craft activities. We'll have an activity for each day with some that are simple like "give hugs". Whatever the holidays mean to you, share your traditions and start new ones with your children this season.

To get started, click on a calendar image below.

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Comments (10):

Katie said:

Cool! Thanks! :)

Posted on November 19, 2009 11:15

Clarissa said:

this is a great idea!!!

Posted on November 19, 2009 16:11

Clo said:

thanks for sharing a great idea.

Posted on November 20, 2009 09:13

Michelle said:

I just made this tonight with my 5 year old daughter. She was so excited about how nice it turned out and wants to take it to school for show and tell. She told me that this was the best thing we have ever made together. Thank you!

Posted on November 21, 2009 22:52

Momfever said:

Thanks for this free calendar! My kids will love it. Just one question: where do I put the chocolates?!

Posted on November 24, 2009 05:51

Pumpkinbear said:

I really like the idea of the small picture behind each window. My daughters are big into calendars lately, and how fun would it be to create a simple wall calendar like this just for fun?

It would also be fun to scrapbook with this idea, putting a small photo of your children taken during that day into each of the little windows.

Posted on November 24, 2009 08:44

Katie said:

I totally made one of these for my husband and he is so antsy about getting to start opening it next week. Haha. Thanks! :)

Posted on November 25, 2009 11:48

Annmarie said:

This is TOO cute!!! We've done the Hanukkah one - having trouble getting the ADvent Calendar to print on one or two pages. Anyone figure out the Page Setup? Do you reduced it down or what? Thanks for the help!

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Editor: I just downloaded and printed it out without a problem. Will email you the PDFs now and if anyone else is having this problem, please let us know.

Posted on November 28, 2009 12:48

Lisa Bergantz said:

Hi,
I cited your "Rocket Holiday Poppers" activity as part of my Advent Calendar Countdown...You'll have to check out the numerous ideas of how to create your own Holiday Traditions Advent Calendar.

Lisa
(http://SMMARTideas.blogspot.com)

http://smmartideas.blogspot.com/2009/11/smmart-math-holiday-advent-calendar.html

Posted on December 1, 2009 02:11

Nadia said:

I thank you, for this remarkable idea! And we will take advantage of your work ))).

Posted on December 7, 2009 03:23

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About this column

This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!

We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.

This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!

About our Craft Contributors

Ellen Baker Bio Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.

Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.

Cindy Hopper BioCindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.

Brenda Ponnay Bio Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.

Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.

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This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.


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