A Crafty Advent

One of my most popular articles on Weekend Notes has been one about advent calendars: 5 Unusual Advent Calendar Ideas, to be more precise.

Given I was suggesting all of these different ideas, I thought I'd better have a go at one myself. This was our first try:

Each present is created with a sponge, dipped in paint, and then finished with ribbons of different coloured paints. Unfortunately, on the first go, I only had a sort of murky, dark-green and so it's quite a muted calendar.

The idea is that every day you stick on a sticker in the middle of the present and write on a Christmas message or a Christmas wish.

Here's the second attempt. It's a bit more colourful, but we didn't leave all the room around the edges for the Christmas trees and other decorations. We're a few days behind, so we're going to have a lot of sticking and writing tomorrow on the last day of school.

Josie and Lori's requests are somewhat different. As the quality is poor, I've transcribed a few below:

Day 1: Dear Santa, I don't know what I want for Christmas, love Josie
Day 2: A toy cat, by Lori
Day 3: Quite simple, a present...please, by Josie
Day 4: I want a magic present please, by Lori
Day 5: Please! We wish you a Merry Christmas, by Josie
Day 6: I want a Barbie doll please, by Lori
Day 7: I hope you have a nice time! By Josie
Day 8: --Lori descends into completely undecipherable words. She assures me that "Santa will understand". You think, kid?--

There's a theme building. Lori makes demands, sometimes incomprehensible, of Santa, and Josie talks sweetly to him. I wonder which will yield results. I have a feeling Santa might not be bringing a Barbie doll. I don't think he approves of such unrealistic bodies on dolls made for children. Just a feeling, though.

I'm not sure that my aim to move away from constant consumerism as Christmas time was entirely successful, given Daughter No, 2's focus on presents, presents, presents.

Still, better than chocolate!