Advent Calendars

I didn't grow up with the tradition of doing an advent calendar, but I love this idea of wrapping a secret message around a wooden thread spool:

Thread-spool-advent-calendar

Check out the full instructions for the spool advent calendar over on Just Something I Made.  But for those of us who might not have the time to DIY an advent calendar, Mibo is offering a free downloadable version:

Mibo-Advent-Calendar

Are any of you doing advent calendars?

{spool calendar via you are my fave, mibo calendar via benign objects}

  1. yes, we are, and it’s our first year with this tradition! hubby is taking the even numbers and filling them for me to open and i’m filling the odd numbers for him. it was quite a challenge finding such small gifts, but oh so fun!

  2. yes! we are using the same advent calendar i used when i was a little girl. it’s from avon (my mom was a sales lady), waaaay long ago. it’s fabric with mini pockets and you move a little mouse from one pocket to the next. it’s simple, it’s sweet and reminds me of my childhood.

  4. I LOVE advent calendars! We used them every year when I was a little kid but it looks like they sort of waned in popularity since the 80s/90s 🙁

  5. All throughout college, I was very close with three girls. Every year the same girl’s mom would give the best friends a basket filled with tiny gifts to open each day of advent, along with a note and Bible verse to read. Being college students, we loved the tiny treats she gifted us: bags of candy, bars of soap… and ALWAYS a gumdrop tree!
    This tradition continued year to year, and each time drew in more of our friends. By senior year we would crowd sometimes 25 guys and girls into the living room of our townhouse and take turns opening the gift and reading the scripture. To me, this togetherness and re-focusing of hearts exemplifies what Christmas is all about. It’s pretty remarkable that the efforts of one mom gathered droves of college students every night for some quiet time (except, of course, when the gift was opened. no matter how mundane–christmas tissues, for example–everyone in the room always broke out into raving cheers. all part of the fun). 😉
    I still live with two of those girls even now that we’ve graduated, so I know another advent season is soon to begin. But I’ll always vividly remember those evenings in college in which like hearts came together to celebrate friendship, love, and the true meaning of Christmas.

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