Danielle Bean

Catholic Writer and Speaker

Advent Calendars

by Filed Under: Special Days 32 Comments

Here’s a look at our Advent calendar. Do you have one like it?

It was all the rage a few years ago when I bought it. The cute little magnetic pieces you find in the doors create a folksy Nativity scene after 24 days.

I don’t remember where I got mine, but I found one at Amazon recently and I know I did not pay $69.99 for mine.

Given some of the other options out there (Hello? Target, you are awesome.) I wouldn’t pay that much for this one now.

How about you? Let’s see if these rusty old comboxes here at DB.com are still working. Are you using an Advent calendar year? Do you love it?

Comments

  2. I have actually been eyeing that exact Advent Calender from Catholic Child for several years now. I think they have it for $50. But our parish’s family life committee sells the cheap cardboard ones every year for $1, and we always end up buy 1 for each of the kids. The toddler always ends up getting to them and half the doors are ripped off by the time Christmas comes. Maybe next year I will splurge and buy the nice one….

  3. I have two cardboard ones we used last year and am reusing them this year. I really like the ones with little drawers. My husband would make me one but I don’t paint well. I am trying to come up with ideas and alternatives. Suggestions are welcome.

  4. Hi,

    We have a soft cloth Advent calendar with removable velcro pieces. It was a gift. We enjoy it very much.

    On a side note- I am trying to do more to promote children’s literacy. Please stop in at my blog for a look at some great children’s books. Happy Reading!

  5. Hello all,

    On the spur of the moment, I and two of my younger kids made our own advent calendar. It is decidedly unprofessional and probably will not last until next year. Still, we had fun. We made a Christmas tree and taped little round pieces of paper decorated with presents and ornaments on one side and pictures of the nativity story on the other. If anyone doe do this project I recommend writing out what each flap is going to have on it before you start drawing or writing as it was a bit of a challenge trying to figure out how to fill up the middle flaps.

  7. I’ll put in a plug for the Advent calendar published by Dumb Ox… We also use the calendar for the days between Christmas and Epiphany. We enjoy making a new one each year as they are quite inexpensive but very well done!

  8. Danielle, Catholic Supply.com has your Advent Calendar for 39.99. I just saw it for the first time this year and ordered one for my girls.

  9. We’re using one that has little pockets with the nativity figures in it (a cloth version of yours, I think). I found it at CatholicChild.com, I think.

  10. I love the one you have- it’s so pretty. My kids also have the chocolate ones, of course. 🙂

  11. I got one exactly like Danielle’s at the Catholic Shop in Chantilly VA last advent. It was about 35 or 40 dollars if I recall. I checked their website and they don’t have it there. The Brand is Kurt S. Adler.

  13. We really couldn’t afford to buy an Advent calendar this year, so I made my own. I used a bunch of saved Christmas Mass cards (the ones from the Salesians, etc) with pretty nativity scenes and Madonnas and doves, stapled them down the sides to create little pockets, stuffed the pockets with little slips of paper with printed prayer reminders and meditations and little pieces of candy (saved from Halloween!) for the kids. Then I taped them all up in a row in our living room. We get to enjoy the art, and the kids love taking one down each day during evening prayer time!

  14. I have been searching for this Advent calendar and can never find it within my price range. The children see it in catalogs and I always say, “Maybe next year.” The cheapest I have seen it has been $44.95. Still too much for this frugal mama.

  16. I have that very Advent calendar. Somewhere. Somewhere with my Advent wreaths, the Christmas stockings my grandmother made, a lace mantel scarf with a nativity scene on it (and possiblely other stuff I haven’t yet missed). Wherever that somewhere is, it’s not under the basement steps with the 14 Christmas storage containers.

    I also have a felt banner with Christmas tree and velcro, and 24 numbered pockets containing ornaments which my Mom made.

    I also have a paper chain the kids brought home from CFF.

  17. Well, we HAD an Advent calendar until this evening. I had bought one of those five buck ones with a cardboard door for each day with a piece of chocolate behind it. It had a nice nativity scene on it and we had done door number 2 tonight. While I was on errands tonight and a male member of the house was supposed to be watching the kids….the three year old ripped open the whole thing…tore not just the doors off but the whole face of it to expose all that chocolate so she could have a private feast.

    Luckily she is so cute, and the youngest of a big pack, so a bit spoiled :). It was hard to be mad at her. I guess we’ll just have to stick to our Advent wreath and prayers this year. Unless I can find another wreath quickly.

  18. I must admit I love the German advent calendars with chocolate. If only I had one this year! Two years ago we saw some at an upscale grocery store here in Shenzhen, but I didn’t see any there this year.
    Instead of an advent calendar we made an Advent Chain. Much like the paper chains I made in grade school to countdown to Christmas, this one is in liturgical colors (violet, rose, and white). Every day leading up to Christmas Eve I have a short line of prophetic scripture (mostly from Isaiah) that we read, and then we tear off a link. I still haven’t figured out what we are going to read between Christmas and Epiphay, but I’ll figure something out by then. Hopefully. Maybe something 12 Days of Christmas themed.

  19. By the way, I don’t know if they still do it, but two years ago Trader Joe’s gave away chocolate Advent Calendars. They even let me take two, one for Myles and one for my nephew.

  20. We got two chocolate advent calendars a couple weeks ago at Trader Joe’s for $1 but I was disappointed that they only had secular pics. But the favorite advent calendar here is one we’ve had about 10 years? from Playmobil. It has 24 boxes with a playmobil piece inside each and it makes a snow scene. We love that the little playmobil St Nicholas comes in on Dec 6 – his feast day, not on Christmas! But the real trick is that we have four of our youngest darlings that would like a treat EVERY day but they take turns. The good news, I guess, is that two of them don’t like the chocolate in the TJ calendar – dark I guess-too bad they didn’t know this before the emotional breakdown of not getting a piece the first day. sigh. Oh, and my 11yo dd has a Nutcracker one that her Grandma gave her with little drawers and a different nutcracker each day to hang up. She loves that, especially this year since she is in the Nutcracker Ballet this weekend. yikes. Oh, but if I had $$$ I’d be buying the Fontanini that I’ve been eyeing for years…..

  22. We have used one that is felt that you hang on the wall with velcro pieces for 7 years now. This year we went with a Playmobil one given to us 2 years ago. Although it isn’t Catholic in nature. It still gets the point of waiting, across more than ever. The kids get to open a box a day with a playmobil piece to add to a winter scene. They love it!

  23. The only Advent calendars we used when our adult daughters were young were chocolate ones after welit the candles and used a simple devotional book. I had a wooden creche they could play with. I now have a small collection of creches from around the world, some of which are breakable. I have several wooden and other children’s creches, including the Playmobile and Fisher Price which my grandchildren love playing with. Last year, before my grandchildren arrived, I took all the Baby Jesus figures out and placed them in a basket. On Christmas eve our grand-daugter who was then almost 6, was allowed to carefully place them back with the correct Mary. (Even the breakable ones.) She handled them carefully and loved doing it. The pictures were great! ha I have not scrapbooked them yet, but they are there and I plan to do the pages before Christmas. This is the first time we tried this and it was very moving and a wonderful way to think about Christmas eve.
    My favorite is a very pregnant Mary on a donkey, led by Joseph. This is paper mache and from Mexico. Got it on e-bay a few years ago wrapped in newspaper from the 40’s.

  24. I just read this really neat idea in a magazine today! It’s not exactly an advent calendar but it some ways it’s better.

    Make one of those red and green construction paper chains for the Christmas tree. On each link write a prayer intention. Then each day pull one off and read it so that the family keeps that person or intention in their daily prayers. I think I would add to the last link something like, ‘”Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, you do unto Me” Jesus thanks you for giving Him the very best gift, your love for one another.’

  25. By the way, I didn’t see anything inside the Advent calendars at Target. I guess those are the kind you fill with chocolate?

  27. I skipped our usual Advent calendar this year, because we have been reading the same readings from it for 12 years now, and I wanted something different. So I printed off some Jesse Tree symbol ideas and readings, then set my daughter to making little figures with Shrinky Dinks (my new favorite craft medium). Each symbol (like an apple with a bite out of it) is about 1/2 inch to 1 inch, has a hole poked in it (before they were “shrunk”) and is hung every night by a twisted paper clip, on our Advent wreath as we read the readings. My wreath is a fake green one, with a smaller ring inside to hold the candles (…out of reach of little hands…). So far so good.

  28. Danielle, I have one (very important) question…WHO gets to open the drawer each day? If it were in my house there would be much frustration (read: hair pulling, hitting, screaming, yelling) from the child(ren) who did not get to open the drawer that day.

  29. I got mine at Target some years ago. It is secular and has doors in a cute cupboard style. I use it in conjunction with a more traditional nativity scene/scripture passage paper calendar. Yay Target!

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