Christmas at Our HousePatti - 01. Dezember 2017
I absolutely love Christmas time. Switzerland is pulling out all the stops this year by giving us snow for December 1st! I celebrated with a big mug of peppermint hot chocolate this morning.
My house has been decorated since Thanksgiving, but I wanted to share a special tradition that starts in December: the advent calendar.
This is our breakfast table. Normally there are family photos hanging above it, but I exchanged them for some lights and our advent calendar. The wall looks a little bare right now, but hopefully as the season progresses, I will be able to add Christmas cards and other things. An advent calendar is simply a fun way to count down the days until Christmas. Nearly everyone has them here in Switzerland. Some include toys for children, but most have a piece of chocolate for every day.
We actually have three calendars this year! Our pastor's family made one for each lady in the church (including Miriam). These boxes have little drawers with either chocolate or a Bible verse inside.
Since my daughter is still a bit too young to appreciate counting down till Christmas, I made our calendar for my husband and me. This one is very simple: I wrapped two pieces of chocolate in tissue paper, tied it with string, then pinned it to a cork board. Once I had 24, I wrote numbers on the bottom of each so that we don't accidentally eat too much in one day. You can write the dates in order or mix them around so that it's harder to find your chocolate. I decided to mix them around so that the cork board would hang evenly all month.
What are some of your Christmas crafts and traditions? My family had many, and I look forward to establishing new ones with my own little family!