A few years ago I was craving the lovely wooden Advent calendars with 25 little doors, but I could not see spending all that money, even on something that we would use year after year. However, we had a plethora of giant diaper boxes around, so with some wood-grain contact paper and a box, I made what has become our Advent House. It's a 3D Advent Calendar, and each day we open a door or a window, bringing out an index card with a few sentences of the Christmas story as well as a stick-figure illustration. Last year I was able to find a child-friendly creche set with enough pieces for one to come out each day, so during Advent we are building the story and building the manger scene.
Monkey1 remembered the Advent House this year, and the red photo album book where we place the index cards building the story, and the creche pieces. Since the first Sunday of Advent was a few days before December 1st (there are only 24 doors and windows on the House), we let the Monkeys play with the entire creche set for a few days before putting them away for the Advent House. I don't actually put all the pieces in the House; I have a 2 1/2 and a 4 1/2 year-old, so the story card and creche piece go behind the proper door the night before, once the Monkeys are in bed.
Yesterday Monkey1 practiced writing numbers with me, as we wrote the numbers 1 through 24 on pieces of paper and stuck on them on all the doors and windows. Pink for the odd days and purple for the even days, and she will open the pink numbers and Monkey2 will open the purple numbers.
Monkey1 was up a half hour early this morning, wanting to open her door on the Advent House. Jiminy, just like Christmas!
Joseph and Mary came out of the Advent House, and the first bit of the story:
"Knock, knock, knock.
A long time ago in a town far, far away called Bethlehem, a man named Joseph was knocking on the door of an inn. He and his family needed a place to stay the night."
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