Monday, December 17, 2007
Reusable Advent Calendars
When I was growing up, my best friend's mother had an advent calendar from her childhood that was made of felt, and had 24 toys and trinkets, many collected from Cracker Jack boxes in the 1960s, that could be pinned to the corresponding day until Christmas Eve arrived. I always loved the concept of her hand made advent calendar, and while I enjoyed the chocolate treats in the cardboard variety we had growing up, it seemed quite wasteful. I made a mental note that when I had children, I would create an heirloom advent calendar for them to celebrate the holidays, year after year, with no waste.
When BananaMuffin was born in 2005, I noticed a great advent calender kit in my mom's Mary Maxim mail-order craft catalogue. It was marked down after the holidays, so I ordered it, and started it in January 2006.
BananaMuffin was a marathon napper, so I worked on the calendar day after day, night after night, for that entire YEAR! December was fast approaching and I still wasn't finished, so I enlisted Scotian's help sewing on sequins and cutting out tiny bits of felt. I finally did finish it, on December 7, 2006, and put a tiny treats in each pocket. BananaMuffin was about 18 months at this time, and really enjoyed the daily surprise, but didn't understand the concept. This year, being two-and-a-half, she easily reads out the numbers for each day, and recognizes the snow man, Santa, and other figures. Each day there is a little treat - usually some stickers, or the BIG prize on the 24th - a pink and purple beaded bracelet, and each day she asks to visit the calendar, which hangs proudly on our front hall door.
Spunky is still too young to enjoy the tradition, but I'm very happy I worked so hard to finish this project - I get as much enjoyment from just looking over the details of each pocket as they do receiving their daily treat! Best of all, it will last a lifetime!
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