Advent Calendars

One of our Christmas traditions has been advent calendars. Once the Christmas decorations are up, the kids get so excited about Christmas. The advent calendar helps them to count down the days before Christmas.

We've done the chocolate advent calendars, as well as the pricey Lego ones, but last year we did something different. I bought 2 wooden Christmas tree advent calendars with little drawers. The kids painted them and then Chris & I filled them with little treats and surprises.

With December 1st right around the corner, I had to get going on this year's calendars.


Here are the kids' advent calendars.

An empty drawer.

Here's a key next to one of the drawers to give you an idea of the size.

There's really not a lot of room for treats and such. I had forgotten how small the drawers where when I went shopping last week. 2 of the 4 different candies that I bought were too big! I guess they will be used in the stockings. (If they last that long!).

I buy little lego sets such as this one. Even though it's small, it won't fit into a drawer.

I divide the pieces up into a few separate drawers. I made sure not to put any of the "give away" pieces in the earlier drawers, such as Harry Potter's head or wand. I like to make them guess for a few days! Then the instruction sheet goes in the last drawer in the sequence.

I put dollar bills in some of the drawers, earrings for Hannah, "coupons" for extra video game time, etc. in the drawers. The kids get so excited to see what they have each morning.