Family Advent Calendar

Put your family into your an Advent calendar.  This is a great way to create your own personal scene.  The kids decided to make a snowy day with us admiring our freshly built snowman.  Include your personal holiday memory- could you imagine peering in through a window, your family all around the Christmas tree, or by the fire, or making cookies!?  We got this blank wooden calendar at Woodpeckers Crafts (https://woodpeckerscrafts.com/)- they have a whole selection for you to personalize and/or make into gifts (trees, houses, trains etc.).  I like that it is wood so it will last for years to come, creating a keepsake! 

Materials

• Blank Advent Calendar https://woodpeckerscrafts.com/search.php?search_query=advent%20&section=product

• Peg Dolls (https://woodpeckerscrafts.com/peg-doll-people/)
• Paint Pens (we like the Posca brand)
• Detail pens (we like the Micron brand)
• Clear sheet (we used an overhead projector sheet from my teaching days)
• Pencil/ eraser
• Double sided tape
• Glue
• Snowflake Numbers Template *Circles are 1 inch in case you want to use a punch*
• Thick paper
• Paint

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

• Paint your background.  For the square style Advent calendar the box portion is 22.5 cm by 22.5 cm.  We just made a simple sky with a whispy cloud in it.

• Add some layers to your scene to create the appearance of depth.  We made a snowy hill and added some beads behind it so it would “stick out” from the background.

• We made our snow person out of beads, a button and some chenille stems.  Add details with a paint pen.

• Create your peg people.  We used pencil and an eraser to sketch out some ideas, traced and coloured them in with paint pen and then went over the edges with a detail pen.

• We created the snow using an old overhead sheet (your mom or dad might have a few of these in their office from days gone by!) or you could cut out the window portion of  toy packaging etc.., adding a little bit of snow at the bottom of the sheet.

• Print your numbered snowflake template and cut it out or punch it with a 1 inch punch.   Glue each circle onto the boxes.

• Add some items to your boxes.  Some ideas might include: Notes of kind acts to do together, 1 piece of a puzzle (to complete the whole thing over the month), pieces of a set of LEGO or Playmobil to assemble over December, notes for a book to read each night, or notes of different types of food to add to a box each day for the Food Bank.

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Purpose

• Celebrating various traditions related to seasonal activities.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors and a glue gun with care and direct, adult supervision.
• Beads can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.