Advent! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

by Sister-Diane on December 1, 2007

in Holiday Crafts

(Apologies in advance for these pictures – I am still learning my way around my new camera. . . . What? Read the manual? Riiiiiight.)

It’s so cool to see all the Advent Calendars popping up all over the crafty blogosphere! I think this is one of the most delightful holiday traditions there is. And I wanted to share my calendar, too.

My mom made me this when I was two years old, which means this bad boy has just begun its 39th year of active duty. It’s very large, and cut from some lovely old-school wool felt. And it’s from one of those saved magazine pages, like she talked about in the podcast.

The original ornaments were also felt cut-outs, with sequins and things glued to them. But they were starting to look kind of ratty by the time I was in high school, so one weekend Mom and I sat down and re-made them all. (Such a fun weekend!)

In fact, we loved that project so much that in subsequent years, we made Advent Calendars like this for just about everyone in our family, with a whole different set of ornaments.

Here’s my favorite part of this thing: Mom was pulling one of those late-nighters on November 30th, trying to finish this calendar so I could start using it December 1st. And in a moment of bleary-eyed gluing, she glued the 21st on backwards. So of course I always call her on December 21st now and wish her a Happy December 12th.

(But on a related note, she freakin’ cut out all these felt numbers freehand – no pattern! She’s good that way.)

This was the original angel, which I love more and more as the years pass. She’s becoming increasingly retro-cool.

But Mom never was a fan, so some years ago she tooled me this metal one to cover it. She’s a wizard with the hammer and sheet tin.

When I was a kid, the sight of all these pockets filled meant that Santa was a sadly looooooooong way away. Nowadays, I love the calendar best when it’s like this. As these little pockets empty out, the feeling of being pressed for time escalates. You know how that is.

So – Happy December 1st, my friends! I hope you have a splendid weekend of holiday activities!

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  • Oh now I will have make one of these for my little boy! It's lovely.
  • I made an advent calendar for my mom one year (a map of the world, and each day you get to put a little international person up on the map - you can see it in this picture from last year: http://photo.xanga.com/strawberry14/2b53993922709/photo.html), and last year my mom & I made one for my sister (the top is a room, and each day you get to put a christmas deco up for the room: http://photo.xanga.com/strawberry14/5820392543548/photo.html . Here's my favorite decoration for the room: a mini advent calendar: http://photo.xanga.com/strawberry14/c864792543567/photo.html), and then finally, this year, we made one for my brother, who is lonely in LA. It was a traditional Christmas tree with all music-themed ornaments to put up (no photos of that one).

    Phew. Anyway, I love advent calendars - they're a great gift.
  • What a great family tradition! I have a blurb about advent calendars on my site this month, I'm definitely directing people here for inspiration!
  • gl.
    oh, yeah! a homemade advent calendar! i keep being tempted, but can't quite get there. sven & i take turns filling the little boxes of our advent calendar for each other, though: each year we switch who does evens or odds. :)
  • Amazing! You received an award over on my site ;)
  • I just love the fact that she left her December 21st mistake on the tree! ^-^ It makes it even more orginal. And it makes it such a special and beautiful gift to friends and family. It makes me want to make one on the spot! :-)
  • Wow.
    I'm 37 and my mom purchased a felt calendar similar to yours at a crafts fair roughly 35 years ago. I since have had 2 little girls, and made a copy of it for our family. I don't have a photo of it, but it's made of felt with the gold ric' rac. We don't have pockets for individual days, but have 4 larger pockets on the bottom, where you get to pick out an ornament without looking and they are hung with straight pins. At the beginning of the month my mother would pin up 2 candycanes (for my brother and I) for every day.

    Thank you for sharing this! It's cool to see and hear about others who grew up with this tradition.
  • My mom made us the same calendar, almost 40 years ago. She still has it and hangs it up every year. As kids, we had to take turns on who would get to put the ornament on each day -- what a squabble it always was. My birthday is the 12th, so I had a special stocking ornament to put up on that day. Our ornaments are all felt, and many of them have holes where we pinned them (pre-velcro days). Great idea to redo the ornaments, but I have sentimental feelings for the old ones. I think I love the fact that you guys never changed the 12 back to 21 even more than the fact of it happening to begin with.
  • Wow - that's a great calendar!
  • OMG - this is AMAZING. After listening to the gingerbread house podcast, I am crazy in love with your mom. What a cool lady! And this work of hers is such a treasure! That ric rac! Holy smokes!

    Advent calendars are my favorite tradition of this season. I have several. I can't stop collecting them, and I haven't even gotten around to making one! We're actually just getting ours set up today. I can't wait. One of them is a tree with pockets and ornaments like this, but it is no where *near* as cool (esp since it's not handmade.)

    And the Dec. 12/21 thing is priceless. I love it! Your mom is the coolest, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree! :)
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