I have fond memories of using an advent calendar each year when I was a kid. Each day from December 1 through Christmas, my sisters and I would take turns opening up a little window (really just a thin cardboard flap) on one of our advent calendars, which we would display each year as part of our Christmas celebrations and decorations. Behind each flap was a scripture verse from the Christmas story, I think.

I hadn’t used an advent calendar since then, but this year I decided to get creative and make my own. For the record, although I made it completely by myself, my advent calendar idea is NOT original. I give all the credit for the inspiration to OhHelloMagpie, who sells this Farmhouse Garland Advent Calendar Kit on etsy.

I had been wanting to be able to make my own gift tags for a while, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a gift tag punch at Michael’s for 40% off. Without that tool, this project would not be nearly as cute, because I know for a fact that I never would have cut out 25 tags like this by hand.

So yesterday I printed out the numbers onto kraft paper (it’s that brown paper that looks like a grocery bag), using a table in Microsoft Word to create my template. I then punched out the numbers with my gift tag punch, which is the moment when I got all excited about my little project, especially because it looked so much like the inspiration photo.

I already had 24 mini clothespins on hand from a project I did several years ago, but had to buy another pack today because I needed one more! I cut a length of red ribbon and gathered up my 25 mini clothespins, and we were ready for business.

Honestly, the hardest part of this project was deciding where to hang the advent calendar. I had the worst time trying to figure out the best place to display it, but I finally settled on the dining area. I used packing tape (eek! ghetto!) to attach the ends of the red ribbon to the edge of the counter, and then clipped the tags to the ribbon with the clothespins.

Did you notice that my clothespins are different from the ones in the inspiration photo? Here, take a closer look at mine.

My clothespins are actually much wider than the ones OhHelloMagpie used, which means they’re also much heavier. And my paper cards are also a bit smaller, which means my advent calendar is very top-heavy. It threatened to flip itself upside down, but I used some extra tape (after I took some photos!) to make it more secure. Also, it’s in a pretty high-traffic area, so the extra tape reduces the likelihood that the whole thing will get accidentally yanked out of place.

The advent calendar is really close to the dining table, so I barely had any room to get a picture of the whole thing. Maybe I’ll move the table tomorrow to get a better shot, but for now, here it is.

Right after I proudly hung my finished project, Magen came over, took one look at it, and said, “That’s not much of a calendar.” She didn’t mean to insult my work, of course, so I took a deep breath and gently explained that not all calendars have days on a grid that starts with Sunday and goes through Saturday!

On the back of each day’s card, I’ll write a special Christmas activity that the kids are supposed to do that day. I’m not going to write them all in advance, of course, because I know they would want to peek — and because I haven’t thought of them all yet. I’ll write each one at night after the kids are in bed so that they can discover each day’s surprise as soon as they get up.

OK, December. We’re ready for you.

P.S. Here are the activities we’ve been doing so far. There are some days when the kids aren’t here at all, so not all activities are for children.

Day 1: eat red and green Christmas pancakes
Day 2: shop for Christmas gifts
Day 3: make a gingerbread house
Day 4: go to the Christmas parade AND pick out a Christmas tree
Day 5: watch “Olive, the Other Reindeer”
Day 6: drive around and look at all the pretty Christmas lights
Day 7: cut paper snowflakes
Day 8: guess the number of Hershey’s Kisses in a jar
Day 9: order our Christmas photo card (finally!)
Day 10: make Christmas gift tags
Day 11: attend a Christmas concert
Day 12: make hot chocolate mix (sorry, not awesome enough to share the recipe)
Day 13: assemble health kits for people in need
Day 14: wrap packages
Day 15: Christmas activity sheets
Day 16: learn the story behind a Christmas song
Day 17: watch “Polar Express”
Day 18: celebrate Christmas at Nana’s
Day 19: give gifts to Sunday School teachers
Day 20: play Pin the Nose on Rudolph
Day 21: eat a red and green dinner
Day 22: listen to our favorite Christmas songs
Day 23: drink a glass of eggnog
Day 24: attend a Christmas Eve candlelight service
Day 25: read the Christmas story from the Bible