A New Spin on the Advent Calendar! Make a Story Time Advent Calendar With Books
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Posted by Jolly Mom
Last year I had an idea to make an advent calendar out of books. We love to read so I thought--what better way to count down the days until Christmas than with a Christmas book every night. So, I took advantage of the after Christmas sales last year and stocked up on a ton of Christmas books. This year, I finally got around to making it. The truth is that it's not perfect--there are things I want to change about it. Next year, I will tweak it and make it better, but for now--it works!
It is very easy to make. I covered each book with fabric. I used canvas, but you can use anything you want--even paper. Making the book cover is just like the text book covers from school or HERE are instructions. If you use fabric, you will want to sew it or do what I did and use an iron on fabric adhesive. Decorate the front of the books with fabric, felt, buttons--whatever you want to use. Adhere with hot glue.
I made my own numbered tags to count down the days using felt and cardstock. I used some yarn to hang the tags and attached the yarn to the fabric on the inside of the book.
November 24, 2009 7:53 AM
What a wonderful idea!
November 24, 2009 9:19 AM
What a lovely idea! Thank you for sharing...A great new tradition for families.
November 24, 2009 10:16 AM
I love this idea! I don't mind the big tags that are overlapping, but then again details are not my thing!
I will definitely do this - I love to read and what better way to count down to Christmas than a different book each night?
November 24, 2009 12:12 PM
I think you did a great job. I really love this idea and I may have to use it. Thanks for sharing!
November 24, 2009 3:10 PM
This is brilliant. I was looking for an advent idea & my daughter loves reading. Beautiful stuff!
November 24, 2009 3:37 PM
I love the Advent calendars but candy every day? This is an awsome idea! The over size tags are kind of cute. Maybe if you use varying lenghts of yarn they wouldn't over lap each other as much. I think I would also make them in varying shapes.
My daughter is 3 and loves to read books... This would be a fun way to get out all the christmas books and not have to read all on them on day one!
November 24, 2009 3:50 PM
I LOVE this idea! We have so many Christmas books, I know we could do one a day. I'm going to do something along these lines.
November 24, 2009 6:11 PM
What a fun idea! I might try this with my little ones.
November 24, 2009 8:32 PM
I love this idea. For an idea of how to number them differently, maybe you can just change the shape to more of a vertical rectangle. Make it long and really skinny (kind of like a 1 inch ribbon...rather use a 1 inch ribbon. Use some fun glittery stickers from the scrapbooking supplies at Hobby Lobby/Micheal's. Cut and upside down "V" into the end of the ribbon so that it looks like a "W"...it will look very scholarly! :o) Very fun! I think I might have to do something similar at our house! Thanks for sharing!
November 24, 2009 8:41 PM
What an awesome idea! I might have wrapped them is a gingham or calico in Christmas color. I like you tags. Maybe they could be different lengths.
November 24, 2009 10:28 PM
How creative I love it!
November 24, 2009 10:54 PM
I LOVE this idea. Can't wait for my young'ins to start to read.
November 24, 2009 11:29 PM
I know of another blogger who would just wrap up Christmas books and movies that they owned in Christmas paper and put them in a box that was wrapped in paper with no numbers on them and let her children take turns picking them out each day. Then they would open them up at night and either read or watch whatever was in the package that day.
What a wonderful idea your's is, and I too love the look of the large numbers... I don't think you need to change them at all, I think it gives them a wonderfully festive look. You are so creative it is something that I am sure Lucas will remember forever.
November 24, 2009 11:33 PM
What a great idea.... I love it!!!
A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~
November 25, 2009 10:48 AM
That is seriously a cute idea and I think I might have to steal it!
November 26, 2009 1:55 AM
what a cute idea! love it
November 26, 2009 9:08 PM
This is a wonderful idea thanks
November 26, 2009 9:55 PM
You could print the number, written out, along the spine in different colors.
November 28, 2009 9:00 PM
i love this idea..i am gonna start looking for books after this christmas (on sale) and hopefully this will be a great tradition starting next yr!
December 2, 2009 7:57 AM
I think that's a great idea!
December 2, 2009 5:42 PM
Thanks for stopping by. It lead me to visit your site today. It saw your idea loved it last week and forgot where I saw it. I referenced it in a blog entry and now I can put a link to you.
December 17, 2009 1:37 PM
I absolutely love this idea! I am going to do this next year and kind of mix your idea and the idea another commentor made, make it a mix of books and movies, one for each night.
I love your over sized tags, I think they add to the charm :)
December 29, 2009 4:54 PM
I know I am late on this post but I still wanted to stop in and peruse and catch up. saw this and wanted to let you know I love this idea! It is so chic but still cute and actually the kids can make and feel proud of. We have a fireplace so the mantle deco is wonderful for us but this can also sit atop our huge almost to the ceiling Entertainment unit. Above the big screen TV are shelves that go across- meant for audio equipment so also narrow- I think we would do this idea with some of our shorter books and display there since it is about the only place I don't have room for anything... I also thought to swing this idea to wrapping small boxes of different sizes... and put the # tags with a bow so they look like gifts- A beautiful and easy display for Christmas! Thx for sharing!