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The Advent Calendar has become a real family tradition in the Cawley household - started when the boys were small, I still continue to make them, even they are now both teenagers. I originally created them to contain a tiny present for each day of the weeks running up to Christmas, because I didn't have the time to handstitch a calendar. Ther grandmother also always sends an Advent calendar, and it was a nice way of using her present to them.
As time has gone on, the same "cereal packet calendar box" has been made every year, and now the boys would not expect anything else. It also solves the difficult problem of finding gifts small enough to fit into an advent calendar pocket, or matchbox, or whatever, and allows a tipping out of all the presents and a scramble and feel through each one before "today's" is finally found!
| INSTRUCTIONS As you can see, there are very few materials required;- an empty cereal packet, some Christmas gift wrapping paper, a glue stick, some sticky labels, a felt marker and of course, the purchased Advent calendar |
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The method is simple - using stick glue (or pva) cover the cereal packet with Christmas wrap - it only really needs to cover the back and two sides if you don't have much to spare. Make sure that the paper overlaps the top and bottom edges, so that you can tuck about one inch down into the box, and over the bottom. Finally, stick the Advent calendar to the front of the box. |
| All through the year, you can collect small items for the calendar - here's a few of the things that I have put in in the past..... a tree decoration, an eraser, a rubber stamp, and a thimble (Tim collects thimbles....). Wrap each present in a scrap of wrapping paper, putting a label on the front of each with the date number on it, writ large!. Then pile all the items into the box, and from 1st December onwards, have the fun of seeing the children (or anyone else) open each parcel as they open a door on the calendar. The contents can be geared to the recipient, and the whole thing can be "upgraded" to make a complete work of art if you like - perhaps making a patchwork cover for the box, or making a specially collaged wooden box to which you "Blu-tack" the Advent calendar each year. If you do not wish to use a purchased calendar, Tag Artists could have a wonderful time making individual "number tags" for each day, which would then be attached to each gift with a piece of cord, and left dangling over the edge of the box, ready for retrieval at the appropriate time. If made with durability in mind, these could be used year after year, becoming heirlooms themselves in time. |
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