When I was little the advent calendar was one of the highlights of Christmas. First we had the kind where you open the little windows to reveal a different picture .... then the chocolate advent calendars - which were a huge luxury upgrade (and it was hard to resist eating all the chocolates at once) ...... then we had the super duper Daddy upgrade. Daddy made us an advent calendar of boxes and in each box was a little gift ... perhaps a chocolate bar in one or a pound note or a party popper. Daddy's advent calendars were the best .... and it was confirmed that advent calendars were indeed one of the most exciting parts of Christmas.
You can read more about the history of the advent calendar at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_calendarA couple of years ago I made our nephew Cullen his very own advent calendar out of felt. Although I was pleased with the end result I had not thought about what a large piece of chocolate each day can do to a toddler's sugar level - and the fact that I am still not able to restrain myself from opening all the windows at once and scoffing the chocolates - so what hope did a 2 year old have!!
So this year I decided to think about this a little more - take out the danger of sugar - but try and make something just as pretty and exciting. So here are this years personalized felt advent calendars with no added sugar. One was for Finlay's 1st birthday....
.... another for my sister's birthday ...
... and the other I sold on Etsy (woo hoo!)
Jeannie asked for the word Peace rather than a family name - so I made a little felt dove carrying an olive branch too. I think that the word Peace was a lovely idea for the calendar.
I made a couple of adjustments. I used bobbly wobbly eyes and folded the ears ...
... while hooking the candy cane through the ear loop at the back - which made them perk up a little. The mice are in browns and greys, with little red rudolph noses and colored ear inserts which match the color of their tails.
They are just as cute as I dreamed they would be.
