Hello Ella Claire Friends!
It's Emily here from The Wicker House, and I already know what you are thinking, "What the Heck? Christmas Already?" But let me explain; every year I dream of having an advent to help my boys count down the days until Christmas, and every year December comes up way too fast, and I'm not ready yet. But Not this year! I have made this adorable wood tree advent, all it will need is a few extra gifts and it will be ready to use on December 1st.
To make my advent tree, I went to my wood pile and founds some old boards.
Even though the wood boards had that great rustic look, I decided to paint them with a white-wash just to freshen them up a bit.
To create the white-wash, I simply just mixed water into my white paint to give it a watered down, stain-like consistency and then I brushed it onto the wood.
Once the paint was dried, I began constructing my tree. I used one long board for the back, mine is about 4 feet tall. And five smaller boards ranging from 1 - 2 1/2 feet tall for the branches.
But honestly, you can use whatever size wood you have on hand. You just want the boards to differ in sizes to give it a tiered effect.
After the tree was constructed, I nailed on 25 long nails. I'm still debating on adding little numbers above the nails as well.
Now for the fun part, I decorated the tree with gifts, pine clippings, decorative tags, and Christmas ornaments.
However, this was basically just a set-up for the pictures, when it is time to actually use our advent, I plan to hang more little wrapped gifts for the boys to open, maybe write some fun holiday activities we could do on the tags, and possibly add some special ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree.
Do you have any other suggestions of what to hang on our advent? I'd love to hear them.
Making this little tree has gotten me all sorts of excited for the holidays, and I'm so glad that we will actually have an advent to use this year, all because I was thinking ahead.
I hope that I have inspired you to make one too.
And since we're talking Christmas, wanna see some other Christmas crafts of mine? Just click on the pictures below.
Clothespin Arrow Christmas Ornaments
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Thanks, Ella Claire for having me today.
~Emily
Ashley
We try to incorporate a few 'pay it forward' notes on the advent calendar
- collect change for Salvation Army bucket
- drop off dog bones/cat snacks to animal shelter
- canned goods to food pantry
- write / make Christmas Cards for nursing home residents (or make cookies, decorate pinecones, anything really).
I usually gear those projects for a weekend or during the break.
Shawnna
such creative ideas!
KitsyKeelSmith
Emily,
What a cool idea. Each year we have a Smith festival rotating among the three brothers' homes. Ours is due next Christmas and I think this would be a great idea for our guests to pick numbers and then select from the tree. Oh what fun to think of neat little gifts to put on the tree for them. Thanks for the idea and thank EllaClaire for sharing with us.
Rosalie Meredith
My three children grew up looking forward to an Advent count-down ( with daily goodies) each year. College years
included! I love the wooden slat christmas tree idea. My grandchildren may be the beneficiaries of this idea.
Thanks for sharing! Joyful holidays to you.
Antonella | White House Crafts
SO cute! I wasn't surprised to see a Xmas post on here, and frankly I've had Xmas on my mind for some time already! I am just itching to get started on projects, but I'm trying to be patient and let Halloween pass by first!