Now that we’re into December, our household’s Christmas countdown has officially begun, and instead of our usual choice of advent calendar I decided to do something a bit different for the kids this year and mark the countdown to Christmas Eve with 24 festive and winter themed books. This means that instead of opening that little door with sweets or a toy inside, the boys will take turns unwrapping a book each day so that we have a wintry story to enjoy with each other at bedtime (or in fact any other time of the day we fancy).
Although it may seem like a lot of work to organise, a book advent calendar is actually very easy to make (just as long as you have time to find, wrap and label 24 winter themed books before the 1st of December). lt’s also much less expensive than it sounds – I put ours together for less than £10 over the last couple of afternoons, having only decided on the idea on Tuesday (last minute – me?)
To make up the calendar, I used 6 Christmassy books of our own from previous years, and then visited our local charity shops where I found another 12 winter and Christmas themed books which cost in total the princely sum of only £6 (a selection of the books I found are shown in the photo underneath). This left me with a shortfall of 6 Christmassy books which I was able to borrow from our lovely local library – as long as you take care of the books and your children are old enough to understand that they are borrowed this shouldn’t be a problem – just remember to schedule them into your calendar before they need to be returned!
To complete the calendar, I used two rolls of Christmas paper (costing £2 in total from my local Lidls store) and wrapped all the books up individually. I then cut out and numbered 24 bits of heart shaped card (using a cookie cutter to make the shapes), labelled all the wrapped books, and arranged them in a festive looking cardboard box I picked up/scrounged from said friendly local supermarket. With the addition of a little bit of tinsel and tat from our Christmas decorations box, this year’s advent calendar is now complete!
Do you think my boys will like it?
