One of my strongest Christmas tradition memories from growing up are the years when my brother and I were young and we counted down the days until Christmas on the felt advent calendar that hung on the yellow door to our cellar. I tried to get my mom to dig it out of storage to show you, but she can't find it. Gotta get her organized! Anyway, I can't remember what color the background was but I know it had a green felt Christmas tree sewn on it. Each day was a different felt object that we pinned on the tree and read about the significance of that object, a star or dove or heart, etc... We counted down the days until Jesus' birth and each object meant something special.
Here's a pretty good run down of the history of the advent calendar.
Whether you're counting down the days until Santa arrives, Jesus' birthday or for any other reason, there are a ton of great advent calendars available now.
from Pid.se to put small gifts or truffles in.
stocking from Pottery Barn Kids. I think Cameron is giddy from too many gifts.
Cottage Kit from Martha Stewart, in the tudor style!
Countdown to Christmas from Garnet Hill.
patterns for felt pockets each holding a square of chocolate by Jenny B. Harris at allsorts. So sweet!
This is similar to the advent calendar my mom made. This one from CDK.
A cute nativity calendar for kids also from CDK.
And from Etsy seller doullina a Figgy Pudding Snowman Advent Calendar.



































