DIY Christmas 2012 with Shelley Munro
Welcome to a DIY Christmas for 2012! We had such a great response last year, I decided to do it again.
We start out with my favorite world traveler, Shelley Munro. Last year, she dazzled us with a recipe for bath salts.
This year, Shelley is sharing an easy and frugal Advent Calendar that you can try with your family.
Leave a comment by answering her question at the end of this post, and be entered to win a book from Shelley's "Advent Calendar" back list.
An Easy Advent Calendar
Ever since childhood
Iāve loved the countdown to Christmas. My favorite ritual always used to be opening
the little numbered door on my special advent calendar to see what lay beneath.
As a child,
my advent calendar consisted of a pretty picture of a Christmas tree or Santa
in his sleigh or sometimes a stable scene with baby Jesus. The picture always
sparkled due to a good sprinkling of glitter.
These days
the advent calendars contain pieces of chocolate or other treats. My local
stationery store does one with small pencils, erasers and other similar goods
for each day. I still like my traditional sparkly one, but times change.
Itās very
easy to make your own version of an advent calendar at home. Children enjoy
them, and my inner child still loves to play too.
Instructions to Make
1. 24 envelopesāred or green for a festive touch or use Christmas cards, which is what I did. I pasted Victorian Christmas scraps on mine to make them look pretty.
2. Number the envelopes 1 - 24
3. Place a small treat in each envelope. If the calendar is for children place a few stickers or a tiny bag of sweets or a handwritten voucher for an inexpensive treat such as an outing to the park or swimming pool. If the advent calendar is for adults i.e. husband or boyfriend you can make the treats things like kisses, hugs, a romantic picnic etc. You get the idea, right? Use your imagination!
4. Arrange the envelopes in the shape of a Christmas tree and pin on a notice board, attach to a large piece of cardboard or your wall.
5. Each day during December open the relevant envelope e.g. On 1 December open envelope number 1.
Alternative ideas:
1. Use 24 matchboxes and pin on the wall in the shape of a tree. You can even put a star on top.
2. If youāre a crafty person make 24 tiny Christmas stockings
3. Number Christmas ornaments and hang one on your tree every day
4. Use 24 plain brown bags and place an inexpensive item inside each one
5. Wrap up 24 small parcels. Place a long string on each and tie from a coat hanger
6. Use 24 note cards and write a cute quote or sentiment on each one
7. Use your imagination ā your idea here!
LUCKY DIP CONTEST:
Iāve written over 50 books. Theyāre all romances and most are spicy. Iāll do my
own private list of twenty-four of my books and will give away one. Answer the
question about rituals and pick a number from 1 ā 24 to put yourself in the
draw. Note ā make it easy for us to contact you if youāre the winner!
Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand
with her husband and a rambunctious puppy called Bella. She writes spicy
romance for Carina Press, Elloraās Cave and Samhain Publishing. You can learn
more about Shelley and her books at http://www.shelleymunro.com
Comments
As for rituals, every christmas eve my family has a scrumptious feast of crab legs and Potte (which is a french dish of bread and lamb) and then we open a single present.
Number 3 for me!
PS Save a place at the table for me. I want to come up to your house for Christmas Eve. Wow!
Our ritual is chinese food on Christmas Eve. I'll take #13.
Thanks :)
I've never had one with candy. I've always stuck to the traditional ones.
Now the crab feast is something that the Munro family could get behind.
Ref the choice between advent calendar and oysters however, 'fraid I'm with the fishing trip on that one - and the 24th being my birthday, it would be an alcohol fuelled fishing trip : )
****
Mike: I can always count on you to think with your stomach.
Thank you for being here. I'll be promoting this post and all the others through the 21st so we'll likely have more friends pop in.
Thanks, Shelley and Maria!
On of our Christmas traditions is to light all the Christmas candles on Christmas Eve and open one gift each by their light. We also sing carols and tell Christmas stories then, too.
#5 please.
sstrode at scrtc dot com
Whenever we exchange presents, Greg puts the sticky bow on top of a dog.
It used to be worse. The first year we were dogless and he used to paste those bows on me. Apparently, I am a substitute for a dog.
Maria - anticipation is the thing I like about Christmas most, the build up.
I'm trying to imagine a bow on our puppy. It wouldn't stay in one piece for long.
Cathy - I think they're fun, but I am a bit biased.
Carol - the candle lighting sounds lovely. That's something really nice to do with the family.
Sherry - you need an advent calendar then :)