Countdown Calendars

Has anyone made those countdown calendars that are based on Nativity calendars? You could make one for anything, but the point of these is that you have doors or boxes numbered 1-24 and each day starting on December 1, you open the corresponding door. In the past, we bought store made types with chocolate treats inside, but I’m thinking of making something different this year that we can use every Christmas.

Those advent calendars are really fun for kids!  We had one growing up that had felt figures on it.  It hung on the wall, and the figures were appliqued onto little felt cards with numbers on them.  The cards attached to the calendar with hooks and eyes.  When each day arrived, you could turn over the corresponding felt card to reveal the figure on the other side.  My sister and I used to have some major fights over who got to turn over that day’s card (talk about the spirit of Christmas).

You could easily make something like that, and I really like the idea of doing them for other events too!

I’ve also seen calendars that have pockets for each day and you move something, like a wood snowflake or a small snowman, from day to day to count down. It seems like a lot of possibilities and I’d like to be able to do something similar for vacation or birthday countdowns too.

Funny how you should mention those calendars. I’ve been trying to find a LEGO Advent calendar for my son, but they are sold out whenever I hit the store. Very frustrating! Maybe we should just make a calendar and fill it with a few Christmas type toys.

Hi Dana,
we actually have this in my Target. If you want, I can get one and send it to you or maybe you can get it online? They have a few different types, including a pirate one, which seems to be really stretching the meaning of Christmas.

I couldn’t help myself. I just bought a felt countdown calendar at Target for $2.50. It’s exactly like what I would have made, only mine probably would have turned out crappy and would have been a lot of work. I liked the idea of making one by hand, but I easily would have spend twice as much just on the material.