Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Frugal Advent Calendar

The countdown has begun!  Our Christmas tree is up and decorated and slowly, but surly, the rest of the decorations are making there way up around the house. 

The little Beanes are VERY excited this year.  Every commercial they see sparks the desire to have that toy. 

I am excited too.  I love Christmas.  I love the excitement that my little Beanes have.  When I was growing up, my favorite Christmas tradition was the advent calender.  I always had the kind that you buy in the card section of Hallmark.  You open the door every day counting down to Christmas Eve.  My favorite kind was the progressive story.  Each day it told a little bit more.  I remember having one that told the story of the Littlest Angel and one year I had one that told the Bible Christmas story. 

This year, I am trying out a new advent calender for my little ones.  I hope it builds a cool Christmas tradition that we can do as a family for many years to come.


I went through all of our children's books and pulled out all of the Christmas ones.  I wrapped each one up in newspaper and tied a Christmas ribbon around each one.  I used some old scrapbook paper and number stickers to number each present 1-24.

I used to teach kindergarten and I have a love for children's books, so I actually had 23 Christmas books.  I am going to have to run to the dollar tree and pick up one more to wrap up.

We will use this as our advent calender this year!  Each night, before bedtime, one of the children will get book numbered for that date and they will open it up and we will read it at bedtime.

I did not order the books I had in any particular way.  With the exception of, book number 1 is the Elf on the Shelf book and book number 24 is my favorite version of The Night Before Christmas. 



This one is The Elf on the Shelf

This could totally been done in a much cuter way.  But I am one of the crafty impaired moms of the world.  My little ones really just love to open presents and, truth be told, so do I.  And I was trying to create a frugal Christmas Advent calender and buying a bunch of wrapping paper and supplies would not have been cheap!  So I just used what I had on hand.


I am trying to decide how I want to handle this though.  Should I just let the little Beanes take turns opening the book each night or should I have one of them get the correct number and give it to their brother or sister to open up?  What do you think? 



What Christmas traditions are you trying this year? 


I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday and these other Awesome Parties!


24 comments:

  1. that is really awesome. I love books too. This year, we're also doing an advent calendar but we'll be doing activities and stuff including reading books :) That's so creative. Stopping by Wow me Wednesday and am your newest GFC follower. Hope you stop by my blog and follow me back :)

    ~MiaB
    www.mamamiasheart2heart.com

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  2. What a cute idea! We have a bunch of Christmas books that we put out just for Christmas! I think we will do this! They will love it! Thanks for linking up at Trendy Treehouse! I love the wrapping BTW! Very cute! I'm going to feature it next week. Have a great week! Tara @ Trendy Treehouse

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  3. What a wonderful idea! I just love it. I don't have kids yet but I am going to keep this in mind for a few years from now! :) Oh, and I think that either method of having the kids open them could work great! I kind of like the second idea though - of one of them getting the # but then giving it to their brother or sister :) cute!

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  4. Love this idea! Very clever! I may steal it! ;0)

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  5. Absolutely beautiful.. These Look really awesome. : )) I would LOVE if you could please stop in and linky this terrific feature via my Pin’Inspirational Party happening today pweease… http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/2011/11/pininspirational-thursdayslinky-party.html .. THANK YOU SO MUCH.. Wishing you an incredible start to your weekend.. Sincerely ~ M

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  6. What a wonderful idea-I love that you're using what is already in the house. People seem to forget that this season isn't about get, get, get.

    Thanks so much for sharing at our Pin'Inspiration Party.

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  7. I love the look of the newspaper print!! Awesome! I would love for you to come share this at our link party...junkintheirtrunk.blogspot.com/2011/11/link-it-up-wednesday-5.html

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  8. I think this is a really wonderful idea - our Christmas books are just out to enjoy for hte month but I really like this - Our advent calender last year was a brown b\paper bag tree with little construction paper circles on it that I had written suprises for each day. i.e hang lights outside, watch Rudolph - Have a wonderful Christmas

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  9. I'm also making an advent calendar...that's not finished yet... lol oh well, maybe by the weekend! I'd love for you to link to my Things I've Done Thursdays link party going on now until Saturday at noon EST.


    Melanie
    Sew Rugged @ bear rabbit bear
    http://bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com/2011/11/things-ive-done-thursday-13-fun.html

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  10. I think this a fabulous idea. I have a stack of Christmas books that I could use. Thank you! Visiting from Serenity Now.

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  11. That is such a cute idea! I wish I'd seen this book idea when my kids were smaller!

    I am hosting an Advent calendar link up as part of my 12 Days of Christmas series at my Christmas blog. I would be honoured if you could stop by and link up this wonderful idea/post!

    Best Christmas wishes,
    Natasha.

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  12. Hi Mamie,
    What a great idea for advent. Hope you are having a great week end and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  13. I LOVE this idea!!! TOOO Cute!! I love your blog and your BEANS!!! I am your newest follower from Randee's Organized Chaos!!!

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  14. love the look and love that it is "frugal! I am so glad I found you through Brookes party at "Get Outta' My Head". I am one of her "Monday Party Gals". I know my readers would love this and would love meeting you. I would love for you to share it! Love, Me http://youaretalkingtoomuch.blogspot.com/2011/12/meet-me-monday-14.html

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  16. I love the idea of using what you have. Your children will enjoy listening to the books. The way you wrapped each of them is just so cute.
    Come visit me at Holimess@blogspot.com

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  17. What a fun idea! I did this with my kids one year, but I also wrapped up Christmas movies as well as books, because I did not have enough. I think you wrapped them up just darling!

    Carlee
    www.ladybirdln.com

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  18. THANKS for Linking Up at Randee's Organized Chaos!!! My Mamaw used to wrap EVERYTHING in the Funny Papers and I LOVED IT!!! ;)

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  19. This is perfect:) I am seriously loving your post! It is so inspirational and informative. I think my subscribers would really enjoy reading this. I would love for you to come share it at Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways on Frugally Sustainable (http://frugallysustainable.blogspot.com/2011/11/frugal-days-sustainable-ways-4.html). I really hope that you will put Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways on your list of carnivals to visit and link to each Wednesday!

    Warmly,
    Andrea @ Frugally Sustainable
    Here's the link: http://www.frugallysustainable.com

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  20. Great idea! Thank you so much for sharing at Taking A Timeout Thursday. Can't wait to see what you were up to this past week.

    - Trish @ Mom On Timeout
    http://www.MomOnTimeout.com

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  21. Why didn't I think of that?? I had the Christmas-book-advent-activity pinned for a while, but I was too cheap to go through all that wrapping paper LOL. My Grandmom used to wrap all of our presents in the comics section of the newspaper, I'm totally taking your idea. Thanks!

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  22. We started our books last night! The kids were so excited to see the presents after school. We have to catch up a little bit on the books. We read two last night! Elf on the shelf and the shiniest star! Their eyes were big with excitement. Thanks for the idea!!! This is so fun!! I added a 25th book. Christmas morning we are going to read the true Christmas story, about the birth of Jesus! I am also going to wrap up some Christmas crafts and activites to open when Christmas Break begins next week!! I made coloring books for them, have color your own stickers, Christmas tattoos, how to draw Christmas characters and stencils too! ;) sorry for the long comment. LOL thanks again for linking up at Trendy Treehouse last week!!! Tara

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  23. This is a great idea! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great week and come back soon!
    Miz Helen

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  24. Thank you so much for sharing your creativity and talent on "A Little Birdie Told Me..." Tuesday at Rook No. 17!

    Friends who link-up to tomorrow’s party will have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Hodgson Mill, so please feel free to stop by and join in the fun & inspiration!

    Warmest wishes,
    Jenn

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