I have been looking for the perfect advent calender for my family for a while now. I finally figured out a pattern I like and was hoping to have it done in time to use this year. However now we’re into the second week of December, and I’m still only halfway done. So I figured it was time for Plan B — that is the classic paper-chain countdown.
I had the girls help me create our paper chain today. It doesn’t get much easier than this. All you need is colored construction paper, scissors (although I prefer a straight paper cutter) and stapler.
I’ve seen it done in the past with a yellow strip for Christmas and alternating red and green strips for the days, but my girls also wanted a special strip for the day when Aunt Jenny comes to visit, so instead we cut a red strip to designate Christmas Day, a turquoise strip for the day Jenny comes, and then did the rest of the strips in green.
Using the paper cutter to make the 1.5-inch wide strips was definitely a grown-up job, but my girls were old enough to work the stapler with minor assistance.
(Notice my pregnancy belly is right in that lovely spare-tire stage.)
I think the whole project took less than 10 minutes, which is just about right for my three and five-year-old helpers.
Just found this article with some super-cute advent calender ideas:
https://blogs.babble.com/family-style/2010/11/29/the-best-advent-calendars/
I love this idea. We are going to add it to our craft / activity advent calendar for this year. Thank you so much for posting it!