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Counting down! | Pad Patter 12.20

bellbird

bellbird

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Pollywog
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Oct 10, 2010
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Do you use Advent calendars at home? The store bought ones with chocolate inside or have you got a cute hybrid creation? Do you count down the days some other way?

I've done a hybrid one once in the past for Christmas but it was the only year there was no chocolate Advent calendar in the house and the kids were not happy! So we are a family with 1 calendar between two kids who get to open alternating days. I'll admit that there are days when I don't even know what day it is! If the computer/phone/watch didn't tell me, I might get to the middle of Wednesday thinking it's Tuesday some weeks. I possibly need countdown stuff more than the kids!

For holidays/vacations we usually make some kind of countdown thing - either a paper ring chain or a particular calendar when we get under a certain amount of days to go (i need to make one for our next trip in Jan but I guess xmas has distracted me!).
 
A neighbor has a "Count Down to Christmas" lawn ornament that they start right after Thanksgiving. It lights up and is really cute. Does that count? :giggle
 
We have gotten a Lego advent calendar for probably 10 years now. I have learned to buy it early if I want the City one. I have gotten chocolate ones randomly throughout the years just for fun, but the Lego one is the constant. My kids have a system worked out with how they determine who opens each day. I didn't even realize that they did this, but apparently several years ago they decided that they would do it by age. This year Clara is 15 and Alex is 16. So since Clara's age is an odd number, she opens the odd numbered days, and since Alex's age is even, he gets the even ones.

We used to wrap up 24 Christmas books and unwrap one a day up until Christmas to read together. They kept that going for quite a while, but three Christmases ago, they abandoned it mid-December. I still have those books all wrapped up waiting to be opened.
 
I wish I would have known about the Lego calendars when my son was little. He would've love those. My girls each have a chocolate one this year. I've noticed that they just open the flap and then throw away the chocolate. He he...it must taste nasty! But I guess for $1.50 each I shouldn't have known better. Oh well at least they're having fun with it.
 
My mom made a really cute Advent calendar for us a couple of years ago with a big muffin tin but it got lost in one of the moves last year. :cry

We aren't doing anything this year. My daughter comes home from school every day and tells me how many days there are and my son is too little to know or care.

Oh, and there's the countdown sign at Walmart that we always talk abt when we go grocery shopping! :giggle
 
We've done the lego calendars the last few years. The kids love those! I also make advent cards that our elf brings with the countdown day & then an activity for the day- today's says to make paper snowflakes to help mother nature for a white christmas :) Some are more elaborate than others (and take a bit of planning knowing what we're going to do for the entire month) but the kids have a blast & we always have some sort of Christmas activity to do every day!
 
I don't do any kind of advent calendar or countdown but I do eat one Icy Squares chocolate every day, starting Dec 1st. I only do it in December, it's my special treat. I don't usually eat chocolate every day but this is a perfect little treat for me to celebrate the holiday season.
 
This year we got a playmobil advent calendar for Atty (3). It has really helped her with how many days are left until Christmas, although she usually tries to open it more than once a day lol.

She's been loving it. It is farm themed and she gets a different animal or figure almost every day (otherwise it has been food for animals or tools for figures).

We are using candy as a bribe for helping with potty training so we opted to stay away from the chocolate/candy based calendars.
 
We use the Lego City Advent Calendars for years now. I get two of them, one for each kid, and they open them up and do the mini-build first thing each morning. I get them at Costco in November and hide them until the beginning of December!
 
We have an Advent devotion we do... BUT please don't make it the 21st! I'm already pretty stressed :giggle
 
We've done the Lego one the past couple of years, but my daughter forgot to click the checkout on Amazon, so we didn't get one this year.

I have an obsession with advent calendars, but other than pinning them, it hasn't gotten very far.

I bought this frame quite awhile back with the intention of doing a hybrid like this, but haven't done it yet. It is in the closet, unused so far. :(

Matchbook+Advent+Calendar+by+Amanda+Coleman.jpg
 
My kids have had Lego-ish calendars for the last three years. Before that (and even now) we had a tree with pockets and a felt candy-cane that moves from day to day. With three kids, there was always arguing about whose turn it was to move. Then I discovered the Lego calendars. (We still hang the felt tree up, and the candy cane gets moved, but I don't know who is doing it. There are no arguments over it.)

The first year, I bought them Star Wars, Friends, and City. The next year, I bought Star Wars, Friends, and (by request) Minions (MegaBlocks). This year, I bought Star Wars, Friends, and (by request) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (MegaBlocks.)

The Lego ones are so much better than MegaBlocks, but my youngest isn't interested in City. He would be all over Ninjago, if they had one, and my daughter would prefer Elves. I know they can't have one for all of their themes; I just want the ones that my family would like. LOL

I'm not counting down myself, and have been losing track of the days all over. I thought about making a beer advent calendar for my husband, but of course December started before I even put much thought into it. I was going to do CY365 for December, as an advent calendar of sorts, but when I collected 18 unexecuted prompts, I decided I wouldn't be starting this month either.
 
When my girls were little, my mum bought them each a fabric Advent Calendar with small pockets. She would put a little goody in each pocket for them. They absolutely loved it.
 
we have the starbucks one from many years ago.


i like that i can fill it with whatever candy they like.
 
We have a fun felt advent calendar that we've used for a lot of years. The base is a felt Christmas tree with number 1-24 printed on there. Then there's a cute felt bag in the shape of a present that hangs underneath and inside there are 24 little felt decorations that the kids put on one day at a time (velcro). My 12 YO gets all worked up about it if I don't have that out and hanging up by December 1st. :)
 
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