Another Inexpensive DIY Advent Calendar (or, Martha Stewart is the best)

As you can probably tell by now, I have advent calendars on the brain.  Traditionally, my family and I use a felt calendar that has a tree to which we add ornaments every day of December.  But over the years pieces have gone missing, and we always wind up with a few days at the end of December that are advent calendar-less.  Last year, I filled the gap with store bought chocolate advent calendars for each of the kids.  This year, I wanted to do something different.  Something more special than the store bought calendars, but that doesn't cost a lot of money.  Enter Martha Stewart. (Of course).  Her November issue is full of great, inexpensive advent calendar ideas.  My favorite is the Gift Chain Calendar.  All you need to do to have a festive, cute calendar that will get the kids excited is to wrap your gifts and attach them to each other in a long chain.  The number of gifts remaining is the number of days left until Christmas.  To be extra Martha-esque, attach numbered gift tags or stickers to each gift.   

 To find Martha's instructions, you can go here.

I hope this inspires you to go out and create your own advent calendars.

Love, 40