It's time for.. Advent Calendars

I have a fond place in my heart for Advent Calendars, mostly because as a child I had a *thing* for thins you could *open* If you don't know, an Advent Calendar is a calendar that counts down the 25 days until Christmas (Yes, this will be a Christmas-centric post, but I promise I'll try to do something up for those of us who don't celebrate that particular holday). Each day, you "open" the little door and usually inside you will find a "treat" of some sort. This can vary a lot. There are chocolate Advent Calendars, there are calendars that just have a little saying or something inside. Today I'm going to highlight a few handmade ones from Etsy (of course!).


Drawered Advent Calendar from DapperDoo
This type is one of my favorites; it's pretty permanent, but it has plenty of space so that each year someone fills each drawer with a little treat, and then each day it gets opened. Now it's obviously not much fun if you're doing this alone, but if you've got kids this is a great way to really ramp up the excitement for Christmas.


Muffin Tin Advent Calendar from keepsakesbykristi
Another one you can fill with cute things- and this one is kind of ingenious. It's a muffin tin with magnetic numbers over it. If you are crafty, this one would also be pretty easy to create. I see this kind of thing and think "Wow, that would have been great to make for 4-H"


Nativity Calendar from grammajssewcottage
I gotta say- I am *not* religious at all but even I think this one is adorable. As the days count down, you fill up the nativity scene with the stick on pieces, until finally on Christmas day it is complete. It's obviously pretty well made and all around just adorable.


Scrapbook-Style Advent Calendar from MomsPeace
Wow. Just WOW. It's gorgeous- and as MomsPeace suggests, you can fill each tin with an "activity" which to me is just begging to work on the Christmas scrapbook pages. If you're into scrapbooking this seems perfect- you could put charms, paper punches, etc. inside and by time Christmas rolled around you'd be all set to just put the pictures on the wonderful pages you created- whether as a couple or as a family. I love it.