Simple Christmas Advent Calendar

Hello! It’s my favorite time of year again!! We had a sweet Thanksgiving last week and yesterday was my birthday! I’m writing this as a mature, sophisticated 33 year old. I feel so much wiser already. Also, I just did the math to make sure I turned 33. Aging can get confusing. Anyway, today I have a quick little crafty Christmas countdown advent “calendar” to show you.

This Christmas Advent calendar wall hanging is a simple way to countdown and enjoy the season with your kids.

A few years ago I made some countdown cards and displayed them in a frame. This year I wanted something a little more neutral and simple looking so here’s what I did.

I picked up 2 sheets of thick cardstock, some clothes pins, and number stickers.

I cut the card stock into 25 small rectangles.

I labeled each square with the number stickers from 1-25. I could have done this by hand but I wanted them to be nice and uniform so stickers was the answer.

Now, this isn’t a Christmas countdown from 25 to 0 because I’m not keeping track of that… again with the math… This is a December 1st gets the card with the 1 and so on…Plus that makes it easier for the girls, too…that’s what I’ll tell myself.

From there I wrote the activities on the back of each card. I didn’t want to do treats or presents. We work really hard to help our kids learn that they are so blessed and that it’s our job to love and bless those around us. Also to know that fun things don’t have to cost money. So these cards have sweet little ideas or quick activities for each day. Some just fun but some to help them think outside of themselves in this important season. Here are some of ours for example:

Call a family member and tell them you love them.
Dance around to a Christmas song.
Bake Christmas cookies and share them with neighbors.
Sign up to ring the Salvation Army bell. (by the way, this has become a great family tradition. Salvation Army is so thankful for ANY time you can give. Call your local office to help.)
Make daddy a birthday card… (we have 2 birthdays in December, not including Jesus’..one more if you count family members not under our roof.)
Donate food to a food drive.
Go look at Christmas lights.

So you get the idea. Low cost, quick activities for our family to remember what’s most important.

To hang the cards, I used jute we already had, tied and knot at the top. I made a loop large enough to be removed from the display.

I chose to hang my calendar on our accordion coat rack. This would also work great hanging from the top of an empty frame or even a stick from the yard (kind of like this stocking hanger I made last year)

I just pinned the card to the string. I tried to get the numbers to face out but they’ll move around. It’s not that serious.

I layered a couple rows to give it more of a wall hanging kinda look.

I also had to pair a few numbers up because, you know what? If you’re buying clothes pins to do a Christmas countdown, a pack of 20 doesn’t cut it. Duh, Jessica. But have no fear. I’d never spend 2 MORE dollars on another pack. Just double up!

So here’s our simple countdown in all its glory. The plan is, once we take the card down and read it for the day, we leave it down. (I just have a ziplock that I’ll store them in for next year.)

As December goes on, the look of it will change until all that’s left is the 25th! P.S. I made this before the rest of our Christmas stuff was out so, sorry for the simple, non glitzy pics.

I like it, though! The one we had was just fine, but this was a nice change. A (maybe) $4 change. And I love that our family gets reminded to think outside of ourselves in a season that can easily get overwhelmed with things..

For more Christmas goodness, check out the posts below: