Last December I got bitten by the Advent Calendar bug. Oh, you haven’t heard of this particular strain of virus? Well, I posted 13 of the very coolest advent calendars ever last year and have been salivating over them ever since. This year, I’ve got ten more to share with you.
If you aren’t familiar with advent calendars you are missing out! It’s an old German tradition that started with families using chalk to mark the days on their doorpost until Christmas. It’s obviously magnified since then but the idea of counting down the days is the same.
Some advent calendars simply show pictures or a Christmas scripture underneath a flap (see this adorable woodland calendar!). Others are big containers or drawers with gifts inside. My favorite way is to have a clue inside that leads to an activity or craft (like Truth in the Tinsel, perhaps?). For me, it’s all about leveraging the excitement of Christmas, the anticipation of the day to lead my daughter to Jesus and impress her with His love for us.
So here we go, my TOP TEN MOST AMAZING ADVENT CALENDARS THIS YEAR…
1. The Pop Up Version. I’m a tad obsessed with pop-up books. So, when I saw this one, I knew it was a must-have! It’s based on Eric Carle’s book, Dream Snow.
Eric Carle’s Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar
2. BEST of the BEST. This is my favorite hands-down. Crafty. Vintage-y. Simple. I love it. (Plus, she’s got the labels to download for free!)
Wooden Spools by Just Something I Made
3. The Craftylicious One. This is just the cutest little thing ever. If I was Asa, I’d want to put it in my mouth!
Button Tree Tutorial at Crafty Stylish
4. The Gorgeous One. I can’t get over how beautiful this is. It’s a typical pocket advent calendar, but instead of a number, the corresponding number of buttons is shown. With the mother-of-pearl buttons, this calendar is down right swanky!
Frankincense by Miss Gioia
5. The Natural One. I don’t know how she got little gifts inside of walnuts. I don’t know how she displayed them so perfectly and made this whole thing look natural and magical at the same time. But I adore it.
Walnut by Latarnia
6. The Fun One. I wasn’t sure if anything could top the Dentyne Ice Advent Calendar. But this is pretty close.
Bubble Wrap Advent Calendar by INV/ALT
7. Downloadable One. I love me a good printable. And THIS is a good printable. You download the pattern and cut and assemble yourself. If you can do it even half as good as the picture, I think someone might ask you where you bought it!
CHRISTmas Tree Pattern by copycrafts
8.The Easy DIY One. This is cheap, fun, easy and super cute! This would be a great countdown for any event (birthday, vacation, etc.) because you could use any color box!
Chinese Take Out Boxes by Sermon on the Mount of Laundry
9. The Matchy Matchy One. There are several garland, matching-container calendars out there. But for some reason, this one stuck out to me. I love the jingle bells on the ric-rac garland. I love that you get to slide the matchboxes open. It’s whimsical and unique.
Matchbox Garland at Merry Matchboxes
10. The One I Just Like. I don’t know what it is about this one. If I had this in my living room, I’d never want to stop looking at it. It’s just huge and homey and yummy.
Cones & Birds by the Red Thread
(I got all pictures from their respective sites. Please click through and let them know how great they are.)
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Do you have a Top Ten list to share? We’d love to hear it! Post a list on your blog, link it up here and read/stumble/tweet/comment the rest of our Top Tens to your heart’s content!
I remember that we had a handmade felt Advent calendar when I was growing up. We are planning Advent family devotions this year, but I forgot about a calendar. Guess I’ll have to start looking for ideas – thanks!
.-= Heather @ Not a DIY Life´s last blog ..Top Ten Reasons I Didn’t Post Yesterday =-.
I am making an advent calendar this year – and I could’ve sworn it made your list last year, but it didn’t!!! So I’ll get to surprise you with my finished masterpiece!
I love that spool one – I started saving old spool a while ago, but I don’t have enough to make the advent calendar yet…
Love this post. I’ve been searching for a few weeks now & think I have mine narrowed down. LOVE the bubble wrap one though. Definitely going to use that somehow & yes, the Dentyne one is still one of my favs too!! The downloadable & easy DIY look awesome though too. Thanks for doing my research for me!!
.-= mandi @ it’s come to this´s last blog ..Top ten tuesday – totally random =-.
I forgot to mention—I found TONS of other calendars. If you’d like to see all the ones I bookmarked, check out my tumblr:
http://ohamanda.tumblr.com
.-= oh amanda´s last blog ..The Best Advent Calendars EVER (The 2009 Edition) =-.
I love advent calendars – we usually get a Lego one, but I may have to try making one this year. Not the walnut one, though – I tried to make walnut wishes to hang on my tree last year, and not only could I not split a single walnut without breaking it – I almost cut off several fingers in the process.
.-= Gina´s last blog ..Tweedle Drunk =-.
I started looking for advent calendars too late last year. I decided my favorites were (and still are) using baby socks in Christmas patterns and using a mini muffin tin (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=32796641). I’m making my own muffin tin advent calendar this year!!
I love the takeout boxes and the matchboxes you have here. So cute and so fun!
.-= Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect´s last blog ..The Top Ten Party Snacks I Love to Make =-.
How wonderful to find my spool calendar featured here among so many other fantastic Advent calendar projects! Thanks SO much!! I am thrilled to welcome your readers to my blog.
.-= Cathe Holden´s last blog ..“Thank You Veterans” Sign =-.
I love these, they are so unique and creative!! Thank you for sharing these ideas with us!
.-= Zanna @ Zannaland´s last blog ..Top 10 Tuesday: 40 Years of Sesame Street Music and Magic =-.
Just saw a super cute advent idea (and for the life of me, I can’t remember where I saw it!). You take those magnetic metal “jars”, you know the ones that you put screws or nuts and bolts into and stick it to the side of a tool chest? Super cute, thought I’d share!
.-= Krista´s last blog ..Hey Big Spenders! =-.
Thanks for featuring my advent calendar on your blog! God bless!
-sarahgrace
wow! I love these! We lived in Germany for three years when I was a kid and we always got the ones with little doors and chocolate inside–I have gotten one for Juliet every year so far even though last year was the first time I let her eat the chocolate.
Ben’s grandma made one out of felt for him when he was a kid and each pocket has a little ornament inside to hang on the tree each day. I just emailed ben’s mom and asked if we could have it for Juliet. She said we could pick it up at thanksgiving (provided she finds it in the attic!) I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I like your new design, by the way!
.-= vanessa´s last blog ..a day without toys: teaching thankfulness =-.
Okay, super sweet list. I haven’t seen most of these, and you picked some super winners. I love advent calendars! I wish I was as clever as all of these people! I am making an advent calendar (or more) today, but mine don’t even come close to these. Thanks for sharing!! I LOVE the button/number idea! And I LOVE walnut shells, and and and…
.-= Heather – Dollar Store Crafts´s last blog ..Dollar Store Decor: Antiquing Trees Adds Class =-.
plain old cotton socks are still the best for babies.~;`
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