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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

diy advent calendars

To get myself in the spirit of Christmas I thought I will post every day until Christmas, except for the weekends, almost like an advent calendar. I am not sure how many of you got an advent calendar when you grew up from your parents as I am not sure how customary it is in the US. My Mom made a calendar for me when I was a little kid from which she would hang twenty four little packets that contained candies, chocolates and of course licorice every year. Even as an adult I still get the same calendar when I am going home for the holidays, although it will only contain as many packets as days are left until Christmas. This year my Mom got one from my sister and me for her birthday, which was on December 1st. I had the idea but my poor sister had to make the calendar ;) There are so many great DIY ideas for calendars out there, it inspired me to get creative myself next year and make one for P.

I might have mentioned it before but another random fact about me is that I worked in a chocolate factory for a couple of weeks in the summer after finishing high school. I can tell you working in a chocolate factory is nothing like working for Willy Wonka. First assignment was working in the advent calendar production, I was sitting at a conveyor belt where the calendars would pass by me and my job was to stamp each one with the date. After I mastered that I worked myself up to quality control of delicious nougat chocolates. One or the other reject (for example one that had an air bubble in the chocolate covering) might have found its way into my mouth.

Have you ever gotten an advent calendar this year or did you give one to somebody else?

5. pottery barn calendar from years back 6. toilet paper roll calendar by morning creativity 

18 comments:

  1. We never did this as kids but it seems like really great fun and a good way to celebrate each day in December - maybe next year I'll be good and put together my own DIY

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    1. Ha, ha I told myself that I will be good next year as well...We'll see about that next year ;)

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  2. i love the little houses! i almost made one like #6 this year when i first came across that image, so cute, is it not?! but i decided to go with what i already had in mind. xo

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    1. The little houses are super cute! Love No. 6 as well. There are so many great ideas out there it is hard to make a choice ;)

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  3. Yeah, I already made 3 this year! One for my husband, one for our friends here in San Francisco and one for my best friend in Germany. So glad she got it yesterday. It was fun creating an adventskalender which has to fit in envelopes. :)

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    1. You're so good Ana! Next year I will be trying to be good as well.

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  4. !!!!!!
    I just yesterday cut out the paper houses and assembled them. Placed them on the window sill of our bedroom!
    I've always been a huge fan of the matchbox calendar. It brings me good memories.

    Love your advent calendar for us, can't wait to open a post everyday.

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    1. I hope I can follow through with my calendar for you! That's a god idea to just use the houses as decoration, I will have to download the file...

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  5. I love the story about you working in a chocolate factory! That's so neat!! And I would have been fired from that job for eating everything that came off the line, haha. I love all of these advent calendars so much, they are all so adorable and sweet. We had an advent calendar, but we didn't get treats for each day. We just moved a little toy mouse from pocket to pocket to count down the days. Maybe there was supposed to be candy or toys, but we never had them. I feel like I missed out! :)

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    1. After my job at the chocolate factory ended I stopped eating chocolates for a while and couldn't even stand the smell of it ;) At first I wanted to try everything that they made but that faded quickly...The idea with the mouse is so cute and much better for your teeth as well!

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  6. I never had an advent calendar growing up. The first one I ever had was given to me by my college boyfriend's mother. Seeing so many great ideas for handmade advent calendars on the webs, I was inspired to create one for my kids this year. It's similar to the one in #4.
    I so enjoyed reading your story about working at the chocolate factory. What a sweet job - pun intended. ;)

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    1. Oh, how sweet that you made one for your little ones. I bet they are excited everyday to open up a surprise. Working at the chocolate factory was not as sweets as one imagines, I couldn't eat chocolate for a while after the job ended ;)

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  7. I never had one as a child (I’m sure it’s because I ate all the chocolates in one day) but I loved the idea of creating one myself and replacing the chocolates with beauty products! I really loved the story about you working in a chocolate factory, talk about a dream job!

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    1. That's a great idea with the beauty products. If I had stayed longer at the factory job I might have gained a lot of weight because sampling was fun ;)

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  8. We had one last year from Trader Joe's. Dear TJ's, I love you, but that chocolate was not awesome. On the other hand, your advent calendar job does sound cool.

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    1. Bummer that the chocolate from your calendar didn't taste good :(

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  9. Thank you so much for your nice comment on my blog. What a nice coincidence that you are writing about advent calenders here. I make two for my kids each year and your display is a great inspiration for me for the next years.
    If you want to see mine, have a look here http://frauschmitt.blogspot.de/2012/12/hallo-dezember.html
    Have a great Nikolaus-Day over there in the States ;)

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    1. I will definitely check out the advent calendars you made! Happy Nikolaus!

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