This will be short and sweet. I’ll mention ahead of time that I did not take pictures along the way because my one year participated in coloring as well. And let’s just say he’s very enthusiastic about crayons, markers, pencils, anything that writes so he gets pretty wild around them! Keeping my hands and eyes busy with him and on my toddler can be tricky. So I decided to leave my phone out of this fun, bonding activity until the very end. Here’s how we made our Christmas countdown calendar!
Low waste Christmas countdown calendar
supplies-
hot glue gun
Christmas colored markers/crayons
paper bag or cardboard or both! (we used the back of oatmeal boxes!)
I had the kids color without limits on the back of some oatmeal boxes. I taped them down since my boys can get a little intense with a writing utensil. Once the boxes were nice and colorful all over, I drew a little Christmas tree for our moveable countdown… thingy.
Then I cut the boxes wide enough to glue side sides and bottom down to create a pocket that would fit said tree thingy. I cut them all the same size then sort of just scattered them about into an even arrangement on our larger cardboard box. Then I simple glued each one down on the left, right and bottom. The tree fit perfectly into every one!
Afterward, I tried to copy a cute font for the title I found on Pinterest. It sort of worked out. I also glued a little loop at the top so we could hang it. Next, I wrote the numbers in a metallic sharpie we had laying around, which looks great but when the sun is not out, you can’t really see it. Thus, it has been now drawn over with black marker so we can actually see the numbers when we switch them at night.
A lovely little handmade calendar
It’s not perfect, and yes ideally it would be some fancy wooden or fabric calendar. For now, it’s our homemade countdown to Christmas calendar that my boys and I made! And I think it is STINKING adorable!
This could easily be made anytime of the year! It’s not just for seasonal holidays! It could easily be made into a standard interchangeable calendar.
Now my son has a visual aid to help him know when we can open presents. Since he’s three he constantly asks “is it time to open the presents?” And now I can say, “go check your calendar, are there zero days left?” He loves moving that tree over one more day. And I love watching him love to move that little tree.
Happy crafting my friends!
In gratitude,
Tayler
