Now Willow is just old enough to understand Christmas, I thought it would be a nice idea to have an advent calendar. I didn't really want a chocolate one as we haven't exposed her to that delight yet (once we do, there will be no going back!) so I decided to make one.
I bought 24 little linen bags in a mossy green colour from eBay, and 24 little wooden numbers to hang on each one. Now for the fun of filling them!
I spent some time gathering tiny little bits and bobs, then split them into even tinier bits and bobs so they could stretch across 24 days! She is young enough not really to know what constitutes a 'good present' yet, so it didn't cost much to fill each bag.
I bought a pack of toddler colouring pens and split them into a few colours across several days. I also had a pack of glittery gruffalo stickers, again which I split so that yesterday she got a glittery gruffalo and a frog sticker, and next week there will be a mouse, a fox and an owl to add to her collection. Several bags have a few little cheap Christmas hairclips in, and there are some glow-in-the-dark stars for her ceiling above her cot too. A Christmas rubber duck and a rather exciting bath bomb in the shape of a purple hippo will make her bath times a bit more festive, and there are also some Christmas peg dolls to find.
I did also buy four winter and Christmas-themed books for her. They don't fit in the bags, so for those days, I have put a little note in them giving a clue as to where to look for her present (today, she had to look under the dog's bed and found "The bear stays up for Christmas", a lovely story about a bear who's friends keep him from hibernating until he can have Christmas day with them). On Christmas eve, she has the traditional "The Night Before Christmas" book with some gorgeous illustrations.
We have had two books so far, both with a cosy-sleepy-animal theme:
It is going down well so far - she is rather excited about each bag, and she is also learning her numbers as we go along! If she doesn't know what a number looks like, I draw it out for her and then she can go and hunt out the bag that matches. I'm hoping this will be a bit of a tradition that we can do every year from now on.
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