HOME TOUR

Last year I was flipping through the pages of my Christmas Better Homes and Gardens magazine and fell in love with the sweet advent calendar that A Beautiful Mess had created for her girls. I had contemplated making a homemade advent calendar for my boys years ago but with them being so little, it always seemed that the days slipped away and I wasn’t able to pull it off in time. Add in baby Aubrey and I knew I needed to give myself more time, especially because I wanted to make something that would last through the years. So starting last January, I began finding fabric (all from fabric.com) in neutral tones and varying patterns.

I hand drew stocking patterns in a couple different sizes on card stock that I then used as a template for them. They range from 10-13″ in length from the hanging ribbon to the toe. Our finished advent calendar is 77″ high and 48″ wide. It’s big and a show stopper. There’s about 13″ between the dowels. Now depending on how big you want your finished advent calendar to be, that determines the number of wooden beads you use. I wanted mine to take up the whole wall between the windows. So here’s what we used:

SUPPLIES

5 Wooden Dowels (3/4″ by 48″ long)

20 mm Wooden Beads (we used 74)

16 mm Wooden Beads (we used 166)

22 Gauge Metal Wire (to string the beads)*We initially used twine but with the weight of the solid wood dowels, our twine snapped twice. It was frustrating so we ended up using metal gauge wire to string the beads. No snapping twine and I think it will hold well for the long haul.

Different fabrics (I used fabric.com but you can find fabrics at your local store or Etsy, Spoonflower, Amazon, etc)

Sharp scissors

A sewing machine (or my favorite–iron on hem)

Wooden ornaments for the days (I bought mine last year but they have them this year too)

I cut them out and my mother-in-law sewed them together for me because sewing machines make me cry. And eat cookies. Like a legit scary amount of cookies. So a big big thank you to my MIL for all her help.

HANGING THE ADVENT CALENDAR

I loved the way Elsie strung hers up so we tried to do a similar thing. At first we strung all the beads on a piece of twine and wrapped it around the dowels to try and hold them in place. However we found it nearly impossible to keep the wooden dowels from slipping around and becoming lopsided. After trying for awhile to get it to work, Matt ended up using a small drill to put holes through each dowel, about 4 inches in from the end of the dowel. This ensured they’d actually hang level. We laid everything out on the floor of the playroom so we could eyeball how it would look and make sure we were getting the proportions right.

After snapping the twine twice, we strung the wooden beads using 22 gauge metal wire. Doing this at least for the top hanging portion is recommended. You could use twine for the sides. Make sure to count off the exact number of beads on each side so they will be evenly spaced and the dowel will hang level. We pulled the wire through the next dowel and repeated the process of stringing the wooden beads. We stuck with the same pattern of one 20 mm wooden bead followed by two 16 mm beads except for the top which we accidentally did a 20 mm bead followed by three 16 mm beads. The wooden dowels are 3/4″ thick and raw wood.

NUMBERED ORNAMENTS

I used a paint brush and water colors to write the numbers on the wooden ornaments. They are the cherry on top and such a sweet touch!

OUR ADVENT TRADITION

I purposefully made them big enough to slip little things inside but mainly we plan on using it in conjunction with our “kindness elf” which I found when we were in Norway. This is NOT the super popular Elf on the Shelf but a similar concept. She’s silly and imperfect but NOT here to report back to santa whether our kids have been good or bad. She’s here to bring joy, silliness and point out acts of kindness, bravery and courage. I like the silliness of the Elf on the Shelf but I do not like the message–you must be good in order to be found worthy of a gift. Shouldn’t a gift be a free, no-strings-attached kind of thing that doesn’t depend on your ability to be “good enough”?  If I knew that I was being watched and that would determine if I got Christmas presents, I’d have a lot of questions about what exactly was “good” and probably be incredibly anxious. It’s just not a potential weight I want my kiddos to shoulder when they are this little.

ELF ON THE SHELF ALTERNATIVE

You don’t need a special elf to do this although I found some cute ones here. As a parent you can use positive language and change the Elf on the Shelf’s story to read more positively to the little ears that are listening. Your worth and worthiness do not depend on your actions. This is a message we as caretakers of little souls need to breathe into them daily. It is not their appearance, or grades, their talents, their sports ability or their perceived “goodness” or “badness” that determines their worth and they NEED to know that from us. We make our kindness elf do silly things each day. And frankly, I get out of having to provide 24 gifts / candy / unrealistic activities that just heap on mom guilt. We start by slipping in an introduction note with a clue the evening before December 1 that they read on the first day of advent. The note reminds them what the elf is for, here’s ours from this year:

Each day, they take turns pulling the clue out of the stocking and then, working together, they figure out where she may be. Now she may be doing something that leads to a Christmas activity for the day, like hiding in our freezer with a spoon sitting on a gallon of peppermint ice cream or holding paper movie ticket stubs for a Christmas movie. Or it may just be a funny scene she’s created. The joy is in the hunt, not in a gift or an expectation. If you do an advent calendar, what do you fill them with? I hope you’ve enjoyed our version of a homemade advent calendar. Thank you Elsie and Better Homes and Gardens for the inspiration. These pretty pictures were captured by my dear friend, Ruth Eileen Photography.