Each year we keep our German tradition, we create an Advents Calendar, you can check out our previous year calendars HERE or HERE. This year I decided to do something a bit different.

I went and bought Acrylic Fillable Ornaments and added a dab of acrylic paint on the inside, added two marbles, closed the ball and let the Toddler shake it.. each ball was “colored” in different colors and the two marbles did a great marbly swirl; once the first color was dried, I added a second color and did the swirls again; once the paint was dried I filled each ornament with a little goody like hair bow, toys, candy, anything I could find to fit inside the little balls, wrapped each ‘goodie” in tissue paper and closed the ball, attached a ribbon to hang it up and onto my tree in the kitchen it went. We have 24 ornaments, 22 “regular” size  and 2 larger ornaments, the larger ornaments have a bit more surprise inside one is for St. Nikolaus day on December 6th and one for Christmas Eve.

I added sticker Numbers to each ball, so every morning my Toddler will look for the ball with the Number for the day and gets to open her “present” and start the countdown to Christmas. We’ve always done that at home in Germany and it’s just a nice tradition to keep going and to celebrate the arrival of the Christ Child on Christmas Eve.

Do you make Advent Calendars? Do you count down the days? Would love to hear how you celebrate the Pre-Christmas Season and prepare for the arrival of Christmas Eve.