Countdown to Christmas with Felt and Chalkboard

I cut out some ornament shapes from the different color felt. This part I had to do – the girls were struggling with cutting thick felt. But the rest…they went to town.

They wrote the numbers from 1-25 on the felt ornaments using the glitter glue pens. But first, I’d recommend doing what I did last (live and learn!) – cut out little squares from the magnetic sticky paper and stick one on each ornament.

 

Either that, or wait an eternity (or what FEELS like an eternity with anxious and excited kiddos!) for the glitter glue to dry to stick the magnets onto the ornaments.:)

I drew the tree with green chalk (though in the pics it looks white – I promise it’s green!), and let them “decorate” it with little “lights” using other colors of chalk…

Then each day, they take an ornament from the kitchen door and stick it on the tree.

And on Christmas Day, it will be filled! (Obviously Christmas Day hasn’t happened yet, but for effect, go with me;) Thought I’d show you what it’ll look like…

I can’t wait to show you the rest of the bright and fun stuff I did to the dining room this year – which is open to the kitchen, so seeing this chalkboard tree from that room is great!

Oh, and after a deep conversation with my 7 year old, we came to the decision that we’d start on November 30th each year, and add the ornament with the 25 first, then the 24 the next day, and so on until the 1 on the last day. Her reasoning? “Mommy, technically it would be a countUP to Christmas if started with the 1 and went to the 25th ornament on the last day, right?”

She’s outsmarting me already. Not good.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun crafting together yesterday, and I look forward to watching our tree fill up with ornaments as we get closer and closer to Christmas Day!