Christmas Countdown Advent Calendars

One of my very favorite activities to prepare for the coming of Christmas Day is my advent calendar countdowns.  When my girls were small my Grandmother gave them each a cardboard advent calendar, and each day the girls opened a door to reveal a piece of chocolate behind it.  These advent calendar countdowns begin on Dec. 1st and end either on Dec. 24th or Dec. 25th... depending on the individual calendar.  Ever since that first year I made sure the girls each had an advent calendar to countdown the days until Christmas Day.

Over the years I have collected several advent calendars... some that are wooden structures to which ornaments get removed from the structure each day... some are puzzles and each day after retrieving the treat it becomes a puzzle piece that slowly becomes a picture after all the drawers have been turned around...  my Mother-in-law made one that is a quilted wall hanging in which a little bear is looking for Christmas, and each day the bear looks in a different place on the quilt until he discovers Christmas under the Christmas Tree... each place on the quilt has a little piece of velcro attached and the bear has a piece of velcro so that he can move around the quilt each day... this particular advent calendar my girls had to take turns moving him around the quilt, and it is still their favorite.  I have a couple advent calendars that are wire trees with a hidden drawers underneath and each day an ornament gets added to the tree... one year I even made my own by taking a card making stamping class in which we stamped and embossed a tree onto a magnet, then stamped and embossed ornaments, after which we laminated the ornaments and attached magnets to the back so that each day an magnet ornament was attached to the tree.

I feel like such a kid myself each Christmas as I unpack my many advent calendars and look forward to each morning that I get to add an ornament or retrieve a treat.  My daughters have since grown up and moved out on their own... taking their advent calendars with them... but... we all remember the many memories of the joys we each had each morning with our advent calendars... and well.... we still enjoy.

My family has diagnosed me as being a bit obsessive and compulsive (OK... I do tend to get carried away when I find things I really like or enjoy)... but... these calendars are such fun I look for new and different ones each year.  I have them in every room and can not start my day until I have placed an ornament on, or opened and turned all the drawers around each morning.  I'm as giddy as any child counting down the days until Christmas.  If you have not had the pleasure of the joys of participating with an advent calendar... the next time you see a cheap cardboard advent calendar... pick it up and begin a new tradition yourself.

Today the advent season has officially begun and I have one piece of the puzzle in place and one ornament on the trees... it will be all too soon when they are completed and Christmas Day has come and gone, and it's once again time to pack these precious memories away for the next year.