Christmas Countdown is a time of great anticipation and for the young children in your life, it seems endless.
For the adults, there can never be enough days before the Jolly Old Man himself has made his appearance. The time like everything else just seems to fly. Without being prepared, the time will be gone and Christmas will be here in earnest. For the children, though, when the first trappings of Christmas are already present before Halloween is done, the time to Santa’s arrival can seem like forever.

Countdown to Christmas
How can we help them to cope and Countdown at the same time?
The beauty of advent calendars is that they help children to countdown the days and revel in each day’s new offerings. Advent Calendars can be very simple or quite a gift all in themselves. It’s a great gift idea for Grandparents to give to their little ones too.
Two basic Different Styles of Advent Calendars
These calendars come in two different styles. One gives the child a little gift every day from the 1st of December and ending on the 24th of December. Another style of Advent Calendar is a counting down where every day a little door opens to reveal a picture related to the Holidays or a simple counter that lets children see visually how close it is to Christmas. Grown ups don’t need that kind of reminder, but children do. They don’t have the same sense of time passing and they can become frustrated or disillusioned with the whole Christmas Hype.
Are these the only Advent Calendars available?
The short answer to that is NO! You don’t even need to buy an Advent Calendar. You can make your own. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you want to be. The choice is completely up to you.
Here are some ideas to help you make your own.
- Number envelopes from 1 to 24, inside you can put a little verse, a candy, a piece of chocolate or a cookie.
- Get some little boxes, again number them 1 to 24. Inside you can put things like hair clips, earrings, funny erasers, stickers, or something else little that you know your children will enjoy.
- Number your envelopes or use another type of container, again from 1 to 24, this time make each Sunday envelope a little bit bigger so that a Christmas Storybook could be set inside. Then take the time to read with your children.
- If you are religious, you can make your own Advent Calendar with bible verses inside and each day explain the verse you have chosen.
- If you are on a budget, then use the days between the first of December and the 24th. For the weekdays a little verse or a quote or a special message for your child to bolster their self-esteem would be appropriate. On the weekend, fill up your children’s needs for hats, scarves, mittens, and socks.
Advent Calendars can be a gift all on their own.
The examples I have given you from Amazon are truly a gift by themselves. It will break the tension for the little ones and when Christmas comes, they will be able to enjoy all the little gifts and their favorite gifts from Santa. It’s a really nice tradition to add to your ways of celebrating the most wonderous Christmas ever.
What a neat idea to count down.
It makes it just a little easier on the kiddies who are extra hyped up at this time of the year. Some of the purchased ones end up being a toy for them to play with and all the pieces work together. It’s a neat idea for grandparents, or aunts and uncles who might not be with family for the holidays too.
Our advent calendar was just a “move the mouse” type of calendar, but our boys were thrilled taking turns, each moving the little mouse to the next pocket every other day.
Oh, that is a cute idea too Susan. Advent Calendars have become a gift in themselves if you purchase them. My own kids had home-made Advent Calendars and I would take them time to wrap little gifts for each day. They were edible gifts most of the time. Little chocolates, hair ribbons for the girls, a Hot Wheel car for the boys and so on. I would keep the costs of these down to the bare minimum and the kids really enjoyed them. I like the idea of moving a little mouse from pocket to pocket too.
Our Advent Calendar was a handmade one and held little candies. My kids always enjoyed these nightly sweet treats as they counted the days still left until Christmas. 🙂
Yes, I could see that. I always had Advent Calendars for my children too. I made them myself and when Halloween was over, I would buy small chocolate bars at half price. They loved getting those treats again.