I have four lovely children, and they all wanted the chocolate-filled advent calendars this year. While I have warm feelings towards these calendars rooted firmly in my childhood, they present several problems.  First, I don't really want all of my children to eat chocolate every single day.  Second, if I buy a calendar for each of my children I could end up spending as much as $50.  Third, those calendars are great for counting down to Christmas but not much else.  

I decided to make my own advent calendar for my children, but instead of candy inside I would put a Christmas activity inside for each day.  

I used the following supplies:

1. Small favor boxes, such as the kind you get at a wedding.  They are nice and small and usually inexpensive.  Any kind of small box will work as long as you have 25 of them.
2. Number stickers.  I used this as an opportunity to use up all the random number stickers I had left over from 8 years of scrapbooking.  This meant my numbers were mismatched, but I like them that way.
3. A list of holiday activities.  I have listed some of them below.  
4. A blank calendar page or calendar software.

Start by putting numbers 1-25 on your favor boxes.  This is a great home school activity for a youngster learning to count.

Fill in your calendar with activities.  Be sure to consider the timing of each activity. (Example: you want to mail cards or packages close to the beginning of the month, decorate in the middle, and sing carols or make cookies or place cards towards the end.)  Print out your calendar and cut out each square.

Place the squares in the corresponding box.  Keep a copy of your calendar so you can see what is coming up and be prepared.  You can also change your boxes around if a certain activity isn't going to work on the day you planned.  Have a default to fill in the gaps. (Example: Candy isn't so bad when you're only having it every few days instead of every single day of your countdown!)

Sample activities, not in order:

1. Make cookies.
2. Send cards.
3. Send care packages to out of town relatives
4. Make a snowman craft.
5. Drink hot chocolate.
6. Go shopping for gifts.
7. Decorate the tree.
8. Read the Christmas story together.
9. Watch a Holiday movie.
10. Go look at decorations.
11. Make fudge.
12. Wrap presents.
13. Visit Grandma.
14. Sing carols.
15. Make gift tags.
16. Make reindeer food.
17. Put up a nativity scene.
18. Go hunting for a tree.
19. Make chocolate spoons.
20. Make chocolate truffles.
21. Call out of town relatives.
22. Adopt an angel from an angel tree.
23. String popcorn.
24. Make a reindeer craft.
25. Special outing.

You could also modify the calendar by making Jesse Tree ornaments to go in your boxes, have a passage of relevant scripture for each day, or put a small treat or gift in each box.  The possibilities are endless!

What do you plan to do to count down to Christmas this year?