Christmas Countdown!
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I have been meaning to make the kids a Christmas Countdown Calendar for a couple of years now and this year I finally did it! Some people call them Advent Calendars.
First I bought a whole stack of matchboxes and emptied the matches all out into a container. Then I chose four scrapbooking papers with a Christmas theme and measured what I needed. I used some great papers from Scenic Route Paper Company and I cut each piece to be 15 x 5 cm (this leaves a little overlap to join). Then I ran the papers through my Xyron:
I stuck all the papers on and suddenly… it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Of course you need to number them - from 1 to 24. For the numbers, I just did something up on the computer and then cut them out and stuck them to the boxes. Don’t they look pretty?
Then I decided to really go crazy and I quickly drew a Christmas tree (it is a little wonky, but I am pretending that I meant it to be like that) and painted it with acrylic paints. When it was dry I also painted a clear glitter onto the red tinsel for a bit of sparkly fun. I put lollies into the matchboxes, stuck them on and added some red ricrac to hang it to the wall. Now we will open one box each day in the lead up til Christmas and there will be a little treat in each one.
There were two very excited people who thought their mum was wonderful! 
We also put our Christmas tree up today. I made Jack put a t-shirt on before I took the photos this time! It was hot today!
HO HO HO!
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Erin Said,
Monday, December 4, 2006 @ 12:02 am
This is fantastic! Such an excellent idea (and I love your tree!)
gwensmom Said,
Monday, December 4, 2006 @ 1:27 am
That is the cutest calendar ever! (I forgot you were in Austrailia and for a second wondered why the heck that boy was running around with not shirt!)
Caryn Said,
Monday, December 4, 2006 @ 2:10 am
This is a great idea — matchboxes are a perfect fit for this and your project turned out so cute! I may have to try this even though we’re already a few days in! Thanks.
jek Said,
Tuesday, December 5, 2006 @ 3:44 am
how fabulous! i love the papers you chose and the wonky tree is excelletn! i ‘m all for wonky!
Stefani Said,
Tuesday, December 5, 2006 @ 8:57 am
Your tree turned out great!
tasterspoon Said,
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 @ 10:02 am
I love this idea and went out and bought a bunch of matchboxes…but now I can’t think of what prizes are small enough to fit inside a matchbox besides maybe hard candies or half a dozen M&Ms. What do you use?