a simple advent calendar

I found this easy, no frills advent calendar idea over at Simple Mom and as soon as I saw it, I knew I would create it. Easy, no frills and free (I had all the supplies) = my kind of craft!  I love Simple Mom's idea of using post it notes for each day. I had a bunch of them around the house and they allow you to be flexible with the activities by removing or switching days easily.

For my calendar, I used an earring display I made for my booth, cut up some 8.5x11 card stock into strips 4.25x2, folded them in half, wrote numbers with black colored pencil and added the post it note inside the flap.The kids and I decorated the cards with simple patterns. Then I hung them on the thread. Easy peasy!

I chose a mix of activities for the month: some crafty, some fun, some magical and some that give to others. Here are some of the activities I have planned:

• Attend a holiday play
• Visit a holiday light display
• Make paper snowflakes
• Drink hot chocolate and watch a holiday movie
• Donate to the Phoenix Children's Hospital
• Bring treats to the kids teachers
• Drive around town to see lights
• Tape quarters to toy or game machines around town
• Pop popcorn and watch a holiday movie
• Buy toys to donate to toys for tots
• Go ice skating
• Bake cookies
• Go through books and toys for donation
• Make gifts for teachers
• Open a gift and bake cookies for Santa!
• Have a Merry Christmas!

My 5 year old wondered what we were making and when done he asked me to read a few activities. The wide eyed happy look on his face made me really excited about them too!