diy advent calendar

 Today I want to share with you a simple diy Advent Calendar.

You learn a lot while being married to someone with a different cultural background.  The Mr is Spanish by way of Germany and he comes complete with his own set of holiday traditions: Advent Calendars and must not forget, candy in boots on Dec 6!

I will preface this by saying that I am fairly new to the whole Advent Calendar thing.  But it is one of those things that The Mr is in on, and so I am trying to incorporate it for the sake of The Tot.  I turned to Pinterest for ideas- and was not disappointed.

Tools/Materials

• number stencils- I used Martha Stewart’s Looped Script Stencil Setpaint/marker
• small bags (available in most craft stores)
• ribbon/string – I used a red baker’s twine
• wooden stick/dowel
• clothes pins- lucky for me, there isn’t much clothesline action in the Winter, so I was able to borrow these from my mom
• Command Strip (optional)

How To

1  Stencil numbers on to bags
2  Tie cut ribbons to hanger rod
3  Hang up – I used a Command Strip hook for this so that I could easily remove it after. To place it, I used the shadow of the hanging lamp as a guideline 😉
4  Attach bottom end of ribbons to bags with clothespins (don’t forget to put a treat in there first!)

And there you have it.  In just a few steps, a new tradition is born in our home along with month of fun for the little one. I decided to hang the lower numbers at the bottom so that it may be harder for little fingers to grab  the bags as the days go on.  Although, I wouldn’t put past our little gangster to just pull up a chair and go for it.