Snowman Countdown to Christmas
December 2016
I have many fond memories of the Christmas season from my childhood. Now that I have my own children I have enjoyed replicating many of these special traditions. One that I didn't even realize had stuck with me and had so much meaning was our countdown to Christmas. I've tried many little advent calendars/Christmas countdowns with my children but none of them really "worked" like I wanted then to. Little doors to open each day looked inciting until I am the one that has to find 24 little treasures that are cheap and small enough to fit behind those doors. NO!
Little fat stuffed snowman that has 12 pockets on each leg numbered 1-24. A little candy cane in each pocket should be easy enough, but NO! Where is this fat little snowman supposed to sit to his legs can dangle? I did love this flat wooden tree that had 24 ornaments but we were doing it all wrong, We were taking an ornament off each day to reveal the number behind it. I thought that was the countdown to Christmas. Evidently, we were supposed to be putting an ornament on the tree each day. oops!
Er'go, our new Christmas Countdown!!
My sister was in town listening to my whoas about our non-functioning countdowns. In fact, she's the one who told me we were doing the Christmas tree ornaments countdown all wrong. So we reminisced about a simple little countdown we had as children. To our recollection, it was made of green felt with a Christmas tree shape at the top and a long thin strip of green felt dangling below. Along that strip, at about 1 inch intervals, was red yard that held buttons, 24 in all, one button for each day before Christmas. Some years we tied small candy canes on the yarn instead. As a child, I would get to take off one candy cane each day until it was Christmas Day!!
Well, while my sister was here on her visit and we were out shopping at a friend's little craft barn, she spied a cute handcrafted snowman. The snowman was made from a long, narrow board. (approx 3 feet long by 2 inches wide) An idea popped into her head to turn this into a Christmas Countdown. So she bought the snowman for me for Christmas and we proceeded to transform it. We went to a little antique shop in my little town and asked if they had buttons. They scurried around and brought back 4 mason jars filled with buttons. They let us dig through the jars to find just the right buttons we were looking for. 24 of them in fact.....big brown buttons, all a little different/unique. In fact one "button" we found actually looked like a belt buckle. In true small town Christmas spirit, they wouldn't let me pay them for the buttons. They even gave us the thin twine we needed to thread through each button. We took home our treasures and began creating.
First we spaced-out and aligned all the buttons down the center of the board. We then traced around each button with pencil. We also used gold marker to # the back of each button so they could be re-tied to the board in the correct place every year (because each button was different sized---the had to go back in the same place) Next we cut pieces of twine long enough (approx 8 inches) to thread through each button and tie it into a bow. We were sure to dip each end of the twine into some Elmer's glue to keep them from fraying. Next we found the center of each piece of twine, used a hand held staple gun and fastened each twine to the board.
Lastly, we threaded each button onto the twine and tied into a bow! You can also add a candy cane to each button.
Children can take off a candy cane each day before Christmas or they can take off a button each day (and retie the twine) If they are taking off buttons, they can store them in the tails of the scarf. We folded over a section of the long scarf to create a little pocket to hold the buttons once they are taken off. .
I found the perfect place to hang our new Christmas Countdown. It's on a thin strip of wall space in our kitchen right next to the end of the counter.
I hope it brings excitement each Christmas season as we countdown the days to Christmas and I hope it helps to form childhood traditions that will last a lifetime in their memories.
