I know, I know . . . tomorrow is December 1.  And unless you have absolutely nothing to do today this might be a Christmas treat you introduce to the kiddies a few days late.

I was joking.  I totally know you have stuff to do today.  But I’ll still post the tutorial just in case you’re a crazy like me.

Aunt Martha Drachenberg made my siblings and I advent calendars similar to this one for Christmas many many years ago.  Every year Mom lovingly tied candies to each of our calendars to help us mark the days until Christmas.  They became as much a part of our Christmas tradition as the tree, and I cannot wait to introduce this to my own family this year.

I want my boys to have fun with this tradition and obviously I’m hoping it will reinforce principles of counting and understanding time and days.  But most importantly I hope it builds an expectancy in their hearts all month as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

Here’s how you can simply and inexpensively make an advent calendar of your own.

Supplies

Christmas fabric (at least 1-1/4 yd in length matching the grain of the fabric)
Quilted batting (that compliments the colors in your Christmas fabric – same length)
Small Christmas wall decor with an attached hanger (8-10 inches wide)
1/8″ ribbon (at least 24 feet)
24 candies
Hot glue gun

Directions

– 1 –
Cut a rectangle out of both the Christmas fabric and the quilted batting 4 inches wide by 42 inches long.  Make a mark on the CF and QB 1-1/2 inch from the bottom on both sides.  Cut on an angle to the middle of the bottom to form a triangle.

– 2 –
Arrange the CF and QB so that the patterned side and quilted side are facing inward.  Pin fabric along sides and bottom.  Seam.  Turn the fabric inside out and iron flat.

– 3 –
Cut 24 pieces of ribbon in 12 inch lengths.

– 4 –
Starting at the bottom fold the ironed fabric in half.  Place 1 pin 2 inches from the bottom.  Continue placing pins at 1-1/2 inch intervals all the way up the fabric until you have 24 pins.  Unfold the fabric and smooth flat.

– 5 –
Center lengths of ribbon over each pin and sew them to the fabric.

Note: I found it worked easiest if I placed the presser foot down on the the pin while I found the center of the ribbon.  After sliding the ribbon between the presser foot and fabric (over the pin), I could easily slide the pin out without disturbing the placement of the ribbon and then stitch it in place.

– 6 –
Fold the top of the advent calendar over and stitch down.

– 7 –
Hot glue gun the Christmas wall decor to the top of the advent calendar.

– 8 –
Tie candies onto advent calendar and enjoy!

Variations

If you’re not a candy-everyday-until-Christmas-kind of mom, you could easily attach rolled pieces of paper with special messages to your child or daily activities you plan to enjoy together.  If you don’t care that they would be visible to your child all month, the ribbons are long enough you could attach small toys or figurines.