DIY Advent Calendar

This is the year....the year when holiday traditions start to "stick."

YIPEE!!

Up until now Nora has been too little to participate in much of anything in terms of traditions around the holidays. Of course we've read her the Christmas story, bought her a stocking and have done a number of other things to celebrate the coming of Jesus. But let's be honest - she hasn't really noticed many of those things the past two Decembers.

Well that's all about to change - I can't wait!

Along with a number of other traditions our family will do, I wanted to create our own family advent calendar. I figured Nora would love the routine of opening a box each day as we anticipate the celebration of Jesus's Birthday on December 25th. And what kid doesn't love an advent calendar tradition?

I immediately went to the best place to go for ideas - Pinterest. Thankfully I found an advent calendar that I loved. It was beautiful and easy to re-duplicate. Perfect!

Here's what I did...

Items Needed for DIY Advent Calendar ::

• Avery Print-to-the-Edge Square Labels 22806 (I found these at Office Max. Please note that they are not among the normal mailing labels as they are designed more for packaging needs. I found them in the stationary/postcard section)
• Favor Boxes (We found ours at Michaels - they are 2x2x2)
• Hot Glue Gun
• Items to put inside

Directions ::

• Download the following three Word Documents and print on Avery 22806 Labels ::: (1) Click HERE to download Advent Calendar Day 1-12 ::: (2) Click HERE to download Advent Calendar Day 13-24 ::: (3) Click HERE to download Advent Calendar Day 25
• Assemble Boxes
• Stick Label on front of Boxes
• Hot Glue boxes together
• Insert items inside

Here are a couple notes for the DIYer ::

- Favor Boxes come in packages of 100 - so it's ideal to split the pack with 4 other friends. Host a little Girls Night Out (that's what I did at least).

- Boxes can be glued in a square or a tree formation.

- When gluing boxes be very mindful of getting the boxes very close and tight together.

- Some of my friends who did this project also adhered their boxes to a painted canvas or a canvas wrapped in fabric. Super cute.

- I'm working on making little ornaments to go in each box. The ornaments will include a verse from the Christmas Story that we'll read each day. I'm thinking I'll either write the verse on the ornament or do something like this

The verses are as such:

Day 1: Luke 1:5-10

Day 2: Luke 1:11-13

Day 3: Luke 1:14-17

Day 4: Luke 1: 18-20

Day 5: Luke 1:21-22

Day 6: Luke 1:23-25

Day 7: Luke 1: 26-28

Day 8: Luke 1:29-33

Day 9: Luke 1:34-35

Day 10: Luke 1:36-38

Day 11: Luke 1:39-43

Day 12: Luke 1:44-45

Day 13: Luke 1:46-56

Day 14: Luke 1:57-58

Day 15: Luke 1:59-61

Day 16: Luke 1:62-64

Day 17: Luke 1:65-66

Day 18: Luke 1:67-71

Day 19: Luke 1:72-75

Day 20: Luke 1:76-80

Day 21: Luke 2:1-7

Day 22: Luke 2:8-14

Day 23: Luke 2:15-20

Day 24: Luke 1:5-2:20

What do you think? Nice, huh?!

Can't wait for December 1st!