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December 6, 2011

Gettin' Crafty for Christmas - II

I didn't grow up with the tradition of an Advent calendar, but I've been thinking about it over the past couple of years. At almost three, I figured our girls are old enough to at least begin to grasp a count-down to the holidays.

While I've since seen some really great ideas for Advent, ranging from whimsical fun to spiritual...ones which I'm already excited about for next year...I took a simple approach this year.

When the girls' hands were already messy with green paint from our gift tag production, I had them make a handprint tree. (This required quite a bit of direction on my part, basically "stamping" their hands in the desired configuration.)

When that dried, I plotted numbers 1 - 24 [for which I may have used an Excel spreadsheet].

I added a star to the top of the tree with the year written on it, and I cut out a square for each letter of their name at the bottom of the tree, to look sorta-kinda like presents.


Every morning, the girls add an ornament sticker to the tree. I know they don't have an appreciation for "19 more days" (as of today!), but they do love getting to play with stickers right after breakfast.

And of course these will find a home in their scrapbooks after the holidays, a reminder of early morning sticker fun...and the size of their precious little hands, once upon a time.

6 comments:

Beth said...

Cute idea! I love it!

Julia said...

You should pin this in pinterest! ;) Great idea! I love collecting ideas that we can do next year. Thanks for sharing those other ideas too!

Marcia (123 blog) said...

Verrrrry cute idea!

Did you see those ribbon trees they're making too?

Just different lengths of red ribbon in the shape of a Christmas tree - very striking - I want to try do with washi tape :) as I have no patience for glue!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

LOVE this. super cute. maybe next year!! much better than the paper chain from my childhood!! :)

and i'm totally catching up on all of your posts. i had 7 of yours to read! where have i been?? and how are you so productive???

at any rate, i LOVE the pic of the gals all bundled up!! too cute!!

Mama Mama Quite Contrary said...

Great idea... and thanks for linking to me! :-)

Unknown said...

I love handprint crafts! And what kid doesn't love them too!