I finished my Advent calendar late Saturday night - in the nick of time! I was inspired by this paper bag Advent calendar on Pinterest. The process was pretty simple, but there were a few steps involved (making the calendar, shopping for goodies to fill the bags), and I messed up on my first round of stencilling (it turns out that 11 comes between 10 and 12). The good news is that I'm thrilled with how my calendar turned out - hopefully we'll be using it for many Christmases to come.
In terms of the how-to, I hot glued some fabric I already owned onto a piece of foam core board (left over from my DIY pelmet project) and used a $3 stencil kit I picked up at Target to add the numbers. I bought a roll of baker's twine at Crate & Barrel while we were in New York, and used it to secure silver rings to the foam core board above each number so I could hang the bags (the rings are actually hoop earrings - I found them in packs of 12 for $2 in Walmart's craft section). I threaded a large needle with the baker's twine, then "sewed" through the fabric and foam core board, and tied knots in back to keep each hoop in place.
The white paper bags are lunch bags I grabbed at Target, folded and tied with more baker's twine. The full list of what I filled them with is at the bottom of this post, but I tried to include a mix of treats (goldfish, mini chocolate chip cookies and a yogurt-covered pretzel or two), holiday activities and small toys or other goodies. I wanted it to be simple and toddler-appropriate (not too many treats!), and some of the activities are more for Adam and me than for Hannah. Hannah has no idea what's going on, but she's into the random bags of goodies! :)
Here's what I included in this year's calendar. As Hannah gets older, I think there will be more activities and fewer treats!
1 - Treat
2 - Toy balls
3 - Mail Christmas cards and gifts
4 - Treat
5 - Stickers
6 - Treat
7 - Pick out and decorate a Christmas tree
8 - Treat
9 - Tree ornament
10 - Sing along to Christmas carols
11 - Toy bracelets
12 - Mini snow globe
13 - Treat
14 - Bake Christmas cookies
15 - Watch a Christmas movie
16 - Buy a gift for a family in need
17 - Treat
18 - Kitty socks
19 - Make hot cocoa
20 - Read a Christmas story
21 - Crayons and colouring book
22 - Go for a walk or drive to look at Christmas lights
23 - Treat
24 - Hang stockings for Santa
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