Our First Advent Calendar!

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I’ve been wanting to do it for a few years, but this year I finally buckled down and made our first Advent calendar!  I was reading through the e-book Everyday Emmanuel, and the authors suggested sealing envelops, cutting them in half and then gluing them onto a poster board, open side up.  Easy! Easy!  Of course, I didn’t have that many envelopes on hand, so we made a bit of a revision.  Want to follow along?

Here’s What You Need:

• Poster board or Tri-fold Display
• Red and Green construction paper or card stock (2-3 pieces of each)
• Stapler
• Glue stick
• Paper cutter or scissors

Here’s What You Do:

I started by cutting 2 inch strips along the long edge of the paper.  I discovered later that if I wanted all the pockets to fit on one panel of the tri-fold, I needed to cut 2 inches off the short edge (leaving each pocket about 3 inches long when folded).  Of course, I discovered this AFTER I had cut everything, so I had to go back and trim all the pockets up.  Learn from my mistakes!  🙂  Cut 2 inches off the short edge, making the paper 6 inches by 11 inches before you begin.

Once I had enough 2 inch strips, I began folding each of them in half.  I was hoping to do this project by myself, but of course, once the art supplies came out, it became a family project.  🙂  So, the kids helped glue and staple along the way!

I held the paper in place and the little ones pushed down on the stapler, sealing each side to create a pocket.

Chipmunk glued the back of of the pocket and then I put it in place on the tri-fold.

This worked out pretty well.   It would have worked even better if I didn’t have to trim every piece along the way!   Eventually we got everything in place!

After all the pieces were glued down, I wrote Merry Christmas across the top!  Inside the pockets you can put different family activities to do, recipes to try, books to read, movies to watch, etc.  Each day, you take the slip out and complete the daily action.  For me, I filled the pockets with crafts from Truth in Tinsel e-book.  I can’t wait to get started!

What about you?  What are you filling the pockets with?  Leave me a comment and share!

About the Author

Lindsey Whitney is a blogger over at Growing Kids Ministry.  A blog designed to help parents, teachers, and Children’s Ministry workers who want to help the kids they love grow in their faith.   You can connect with her via twitter or on facebook.

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