Countdown to Christmas

Okay, here I am finally with some new projects. After completing my Countdown to Christmas books I was still not satisfied in the Christmas Countdown department. There are so many cute advent calender ideas out there and I wanted to create something else. When I was growing up my mom made these Christmas tree banners that hung on the wall and we made a bunch of felt ornaments to put on the trees. My brothers and I each had our own and I distinctly remember making the little ornaments and then being excited to put one on each day. Well I wanted something just as memorable for Small fry and Sweet pea so I came up with this.
I started with 3 different types of containers that I had in my craft room. I had these little plastic containers with lids, paper mache boxes and wood shaped boxes. I cut out circles from scrapbook paper to decorate the lids of the plastic containers. I tried Mod Podging them to the lids but they came off easily when the lid was bent so I actually found that using double sided tape worked the best. I Mod Podged scrapbook paper to the fronts, sides and backs of the other containers as well.

We have these decorative trees in our home year round and I thought it would be the perfect thing to use to make a Christmas Countdown tree.

Here are my containers one decorated and numbered 1-25.

I used craft wire to make hangers on the plastic and paper mache containers. I added some ribbon to each of the hangers to dress them up a bit. Here is the finished product.

Each day small fry will get to open one container. Inside I put things like Christmas stamps, some coins to put in her piggy bank, mini marshmallows, a few bracelets and fruit snacks. As she gets older I can put little notes of games or activities we can do. When sweet pea is old enough too then they can take turns opening or I can put something for both of them inside. When we are done with it I will store away the containers and put the tree back in our tv room. It will be able to be used for a long time I hope. I am super happy with how it turned out.