Christmas Advent Calender

As I was browsing pinterest one day I saw an idea for a Christmas Advent Calender.  Instead of gifts or candy this one focused on family activities. You can see the original idea here.  I loved it.  So I am going to implement that into my Christmas traditions this year.  Of course to do so I had to make a calender to use.  So I browsed for a moment until I saw a design I liked and went to work.  This is what I came up with.

It is a simple easy design that really any one can do.
I used cute Christmas paper and plain card stock to make pockets to put the activities in.  I used ribbon to make my frame.  Behind the horizontal ribbon I glued dowels to make my frame sturdier.

After the frame was made I glued the pockets on and made my activity tags to place in the pockets. I would suggest that you not glue the pockets in the center.  Make them a little bottom heavy so the tops don't tip like my # 22 is.

And I was done.  It was quick and easy and cute.  I am excited to use this and make it a fun family tradition.  I like that it will be easy to make different tags each year if I need them as well.  This year here is a list of tags that I made (in no particular order):
Drive around and see Lights
Go to Temple square and see lights
Decorate cookies
Deliver gifts to neighbors
Church Christmas Party
My families Christmas Party
Dad's family Christmas Party
Mom and Dad's friend Christmas Party
Make hot chocolate
Go sledding
Build a snowman
Write Santa a letter
Read a Christmas Book (I made a few of these for those days that nothing else can really happen...)
Watch a Christmas movie
Family Slumber Party
Make a Christmas craft
Make Grandma and Grandpa a present
Make Nativity puppets
Put on nativity puppet show
Buy a tree and decorate it
Dance to Christmas music
Read Christmas story from Bible
Color a Christmas Picture
Clean house to get ready for Santa

In future years I want to put more activities that serve others in the mix.

One more silly thing I did.  I color coordinated the ribbons that went on the tags.  Red ribbon means the date is set: Christmas parties etc.  White ribbon is things that I need to plan for but can be switched if needed: make crafts, build snowman (cause you have to have snow), etc.  And the green ribbon are things that I can do on a whim: read a book, dance etc.  Now I can switch things around more easily when needed.

So there you have it.  I am pretty happy with it and I am looking forward to having some fun times with my family.