Saturday 30 November 2013

our homemade advent calendar

Megan
A little over a month ago, I got extremely drawn in by the concept of slightly indulgent advent calendars, in particular being drawn in by the Benefit and Yankee candle ones. As exciting as they looked, they came with fairly hefty price tags (especially since in past years I've considered Lindt calendars expensive!), however I still liked the idea of starting a new tradition for our first Christmas as a married couple. I spent a little time on Pinterest, and stumbled across a few homemade advent calendars where paper bags were strung up on ribbon or string with little pegs. I loved the aesthetic, and thought it would make a lovely feature in our little flat. With eBay on our side, we snapped up the ribbon, pegs and bags and got straight to work.

Most of the bags contain chocolate coins or little Lindt chocolates, but 'landmark' days (including my birthday on the 14th!) contain slightly more indulgent treats. There are a few festive Lush bath bombs and bubble bars in there, along with a some seasonal Yankee candle wax tarts. I even included some pretty party poppers that I picked up in Tesco for the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th! Originally I set out to find some Christmas guitar picks for Grant to balance out the Lush goodies, but to no avail (between you and me, I think he'd prefer chocolate anyway!). As a finishing touch, we numbered each bag in the corner with a gold paint pen - ironically, the pen was probably the most expensive part of the calendar!

Grant 
Like many people of our generation, my childhood memories of advent calendars involve running downstairs every morning to have the tiny piece of chocolate (that kind of tasted like cardboard) before wrapping up to go to school. I've always loved the sense of anticipation that they brought as a child, however, with age the magic of the shop bought cardboard advent calender faded slightly. I started spending Christmas with Megan and her family a few years ago and realized that with a little creativity, the advent calender can be so much more. Keeping the magic alive for children young and old!

As this is our first Christmas as husband and wife, I think that it will be the year for many traditions to be founded in our home, the first of which is our advent calender. It's such a great centerpiece in our living room - I really love how the red and gold remind us of our wedding, as well as being festive. It was also a good excuse to get some nice chocolate! As we won't be in our flat for Christmas itself, it's a good excuse to make the most of what time we have here.

until next time!