ornament – Cecelia's Spot

25 Ideas for Advent Calendars (&Crafts)

Today there are many advent calendars that can be bought, ranging from simple chocolates to complex lego advent calendars. There are wine, book, superhero, and just about anything advent calendars that can be bought for a price. I remember having certain Christmas traditions in my home as a child and want my children to experience similar fond memories when they are older. So I purchased a German Christmas pyramid second hand (as they can be very expensive and knowing children, it most likely will break).

I also decided to buy an advent calendar for my children. I decided one sturdy wooden advent calendar would do the trick! I saw many beautiful lit ones for higher prices; however, I felt they could easily be broken. I finally decided on one I purchased at Lowes.

Now, the big question is, what should I fill each day with? So many options, but such a SMALL space. So, only very small items fit, such as two Hershey kisses or two small mini candy bars and the door wont completely shut. I didn’t want to start off with something too grand in the first door. My kids were excited about chocolate, so that’s what I did, two very small pieces of chocolate.

For the other doors, I will have some small chocolates in a couple, but I have many other cute and fun items for the kiddos. I’ll leave a very small piece of paper in the day that will have a clue to where their item is located. I was going to go into scavenger hunts, but lets be real, I would rather relax for a couple minutes after bed (or do this post), instead of trying to come up with an elaborate hunt they will be done with in 5 mins! Since my children can’t completely read yet, I decided using pictures might be best. So in day 2 I will put a picture of a christmas tree. They will run to the tree and see a pack of fruit flavored candy canes under the tree to hang up on the tree.

Here are some other ideas of items you can leave notes for:

Candy
Christmas books
Plato
wooden /ceramic projects
Felt snowman fun
any kind of christmas project including photo ornaments, easy glitter ornaments, and many other ones on this website
ornaments for the tree
Christmas clothing
Christmas lights
coloring books
Christmas cookies
Baking recipe to make cookies
Sprinkles for cookies
Hot cocoa packet/marshmallows..or homemade hot cocoa
Christmas movie
Christmas mask (2020)
Christmas headband, clips, socks
Small stuffed Christmas santa, elf etc.
Sock Snowman (either made or have supplies to make)
Felt Christmas tree (can make one, or if child is old enough they can make it!) or just an ornament to add to their current felt C
Christmas tree!
Tree Prints!
Salt dough wreath, ornament, or garland!
+Pomander Ball supplies
Felt Snowman Fun!
Singing holiday card/toy/Christmas solar bobble head

ENJOY AND HAVE FUN!!

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Salt dough wreath, ornament, or garland!

So we have done the salt dough ornaments before, but this time we made garland and a wreath out of our painted Easter ones!

All you need to make salt dough ornaments is flour, water, and salt. So, start with two cups of flour, 1 cup and salt and mix. Then add water slowly until it is a play dough like consistency. We ended up using our hands to mix it up. If it is too sticky, add more flour, too dry add more water.

Then we rolled out the dough to a 1/4 inch thin, and used some Easter egg halves, including a bunny, chick, and jelly bean shape. You can of course just use cookie cutters as well. Use a straw to make a circle hole at the top of each ornament so you can add string later.

Turn the oven on at 200 degrees and put parchment paper on the tray and leave in the oven for 2-3 hours. If you don’t have parchment paper just move the ornaments with a pie lifter to make sure they don’t stick about an hour in. Time depends on how thick the ornaments are. Once cooled and dried, paint them as you wish. You can add sparkles if you want. Once all dried, use string or ribbon through the hole and tie. After that hang them up!

Or, you can make garland by putting one ornament through the string and then tying it in place and continuing until desired effect.

If you want to make a wreath, we just used 2 paper plates glued together and cut out the inner circle then used a hot glue gun. Of course you can use cardboard or other material, but this is what we had on hand with the quarantine.

We used the glue gun to glue on some ribbon and add pom poms.

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DIY Felt Unicorn Ornament

My daughter saw the cutest ornament at Boscov’s the other day…a unicorn. It was made from felt and I thought, “I can make that!” If you know anyone who loves unicorns then this simple felt ornament can be made for Christmas, or enlarged as a stuffed animal!

Materials needed:

-Felt in various colors: I used leftover felt I had from other projects. Any colors will work. I used white, yellow, blue, and pink.

-scissors, needle, thread

-hot glue gun, felt marker, cotton for stuffing

First I laid out a white piece of felt and drew the body. I didn’t use a printout or pattern, I just eyeballed it by looking at pictures. I cut it out, then laid it on top of another piece of white felt to trace and again cut out. This way I had both sides of the unicorn’s body.

The second cut out of the unicorn body ended up a little larger, but I just cut and adjusted the size as I was sewing it. Next, I moved onto cutting out the hair for the mane and tail. I also cut out an ear and horn. I looked at pictures and drew it freehand on the colors of felt I desired. They ended up looking like little worms.

I placed my tail pieces on the back to make sure they looked okay and hot glued them to the back piece of the body. I did not glue them to BOTH body pieces, just the front of the back piece of the body (see picture).

Next, I placed the hair and ear on the unicorn to make sure it looked correct. I didn’t glue it, but just placed it there to make sure it was to my liking. I drew on eyes, a mouth and nose with a felt marker.

I hot glued the horn onto the front of the back piece of the body. I hot glued the mane and ear onto the front body piece. Next I sewed the unicorn together. As I was sewing, I stuffed it. Don’t wait until the end or your won’t be able to fill the smaller spaces like the legs.

After sewing and stuffing the unicorn, I cut a piece of ribbon and hot glued it to the back of the unicorn.

Next, I hung it on the tree. Wallah! DONE!

Happy Ornament Making!!!!

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