One thing I cannot resist, is a good advent calendar. I love them. Even though I haven’t been able to settle on one from year to year except for our book advent, I am always trying. I think I found some keepers this year. Maybe. Probably. 🙂
We have five advent calendars this year {six if you count the Lego Advent the grandparents sent}, so I’m going to split them up into two days. I know December is only a couple of days away but most of these are really simple to make. I wouldn’t do it this late myself if they weren’t. 🙂
The first one is this 24 names of Jesus ornament tree.
I took ideas from some of my favorite blogger friends and meshed them all together.
Kirstin from Kojodesigns posted about the 25 names of Christ advent at I am Momma Hear Me Roar. I just fell in love with the idea instantly. What a wonderful way to anticipate the night of our Savior’s birth by talking about His many names and why He is called by those names in the scriptures. It’s a simple way to teach my kids and poignant enough to be a good reminder to me about what Christmas is really about. Love it.
The cookie and star mint ornaments are from Lorajean’s Magazine. Go here for the recipe. Her salt dough ‘cookies’ are gorgeous. They are fun to do with the kids and take just an afternoon to whip up. I also included some jingle bells, and dried oranges.
To hold all the ornaments I also used Lorajean’s idea of origami boxes made out of brown grocery sacks. She gives the tutorial for the boxes on her site.
Seriously…this takes some time cutting and folding, but it’s free! I printed up the numbers on printer paper and cut them into little circles, then glued the finished boxes to an old frame. It used to be a mirror but broke, which explains the stiff cardboard backing that was already in place. Who says broken mirrors aren’t lucky? It worked perfect for our advent boxes.
Here it is all ready for Thursday. My kids can hardly wait already.
And if you’re wondering…the tree is from Joann. I think they have the prettiest fake mini trees, although they are a bit pricey {$13} if you don’t get them on sale. I was so dumb and did Black Friday shopping there against my better judgement. I went later in the morning but the line was horrendous {think 3 hours + if you have to wait for the cutting table}. At least the tree only cost me about $4 and some change.
The next advent for today is
this picture advent and is actually one I came up with after Christmas last season and tried to stuff into a wreath.
I wised up and strung them up in the empty frames in my “dining area” instead.
Much better.
All we do is flip the number over to reveal a picture from Christmases past. And they are actually cards, so the inside has a scripture to read and hymn to sing for each night.
The 20th is our 9 year anniversary, so I made that picture one of our wedding photos.
Now I just need a wreath on that mirror…don’t you think? We’ll see. I can hear my husband groaning already…”what??? another wreath?” 🙂
I have some more last minute advent ideas for tomorrow.
See you then!
Dear Delia, Thank you for these wonderful ideas for Advent calendar! Best of all I like the photo calendar that you have created. It looks suitable also for my home and a nice way to surprise my husband. I think I will use the most meaningful photos from this year that has been so rich and we can appreciate its richness while getting closer to the adventures of next year. Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
Dear Delia, Thank you for these wonderful ideas for Advent calendar! Best of all I like the photo calendar that you have created. It looks suitable also for my home and a nice way to surprise my husband. I think I will use the most meaningful photos from this year that has been so rich and we can appreciate its richness while getting closer to the adventures of next year. Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
super cute and super easy ideas. Thanks for sharing. I love the Christmas picture one, how fun! 🙂
Oh I love all of those…especially the first one!
great advents! I especially love the one with pictures of Christmas’ past! I think I’ll try that next year!
These are both fabulous, Delia! I love the picture cards- an idea I haven’t seen yet! And would you be willing to share how you dried your oranges? Is it just a matter of slicing and baking? Your style, as always, is just beautiful! 🙂 Hope you have a great week!
I really love the look of the grocery sack origami boxes.
I just Love how you framed the origami boxes! It looks so awesome!! 🙂
Oh Delia! I love both of those ideas! LOVE the boxes made out of paper bags. Pure genius.
P.S. Gorgeous wedding photo….wow…just wow.
Beautiful ideas! Thanks for sharing =)
I have been out of looking at blogs but back in it and I love your recent ideas. I advent calendar with the Ornaments of Jesus is so cute and different. Love doing the different pictures too and a wreath would be fun on the mirror.
I have also looked and looked at advents without finding one I am in love with, but I do love the origami boxes idea, especially since I can make the boxes while watching tv!
I ended up making one with Bible verses on cards for each day (with printable), since small items are still a choking hazard for my son, but it would be great to combine the origami boxes with the Bible verses, or even with Legos as he gets older. Thanks for the great idea, and for the wonderful photos!
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those boxes look so pretty sitting there in the frame