DIY Christmas Countdowns

As we are nearing the middle of November I am beginning to turn my mind towards preparing for Christmas.  One of the things I been working on is getting our family photo card ready.  I’m thinking some cute Christmas plaid may look good as a backdrop to the photo.  Any other thoughts??

 

Additionally, we are only a couple of weeks away before our Christmas Countdown begins!  We are Christian and so Christmas has deep religious meaning, however, there are traditions that we have adopted that we also associate with Christmas. One of the Christmas traditions we started with our kids about 5 years ago is the Christmas Countdown.

 

On the 1st day of December we get out our Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar and the youngest child (who knows what Christmas is) puts up the Day 1 marker.  Each morning the kids take turns putting up the next marker.  They know that Christmas is on the 25th and because there are 25 spots on the calendar they are able to visually see how as the calendar fills up Christmas gets closer!  It is a fun and exciting daily event!

 

I’ve been seeing some really cute DIY Countdowns around the blogosphere.  Here are a few!

 

via Poppytalk

 

via The Painted Hive

via Martha Stewart

 

via Today’s Creative Blog

 

If time and/or money is tight then an old school paper chain will do the trick!  Around the Holidays keeping it simple is sometimes the best way to go!

via bebeblog

 

When my oldest was 3 years old I began looking around for a Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar.  I found and mostly followed a tutorial on using a cookie sheet (found HERE).  Below is how my version turned out.

 

 

 

The supplies I used for this DIY are below.  It might look complex but it was fairly easy.  I painted the top and bottom of the cookie sheet with red acrylic paint.  Then I cut a heavy piece of paper (cardstock) to fit the cookie sheet.  Then using a ruler I made 5 equally sized rows across and  5 down.

 

 

Next, I had bought a Christmas Chipboard kit for $6 (with a 40% coupon) and some number stickers.  I placed sticker numbers on each chipboard.  Sorry about the blurry photo below but wanted to show you how I outlined the numbers in black so they would show up more.

I also glued down the chipboard letters to spell the words “Christmas Countdown”.  The cookie sheet is magnetic so by placing a magnet on the backside of each chipboard the chipboard pieces are able to stay in place.  The numbers that are not being used can be stored on the backside of the cookie sheet!

This DIY Advent Calendar is going on year 5 and continues to be a fun tradition for our family.  Do you have a way you like to count down to Christmas (or if not Christmas, your celebrated Holiday)??  Have you started making any preparations for Christmas or do you like to wait until after Thanksgiving??  Til next time!