Advent calendars can be so fun to unbox each day. I think they are especially fun for kids, and I know I enjoyed opening them as a kid. Plus, there are so many different things to do with advent calendars. I'm going to cover a couple of my favorite ideas, however, there's always room to twist these ideas and create new ones!

I will be adding a couple photos to the post for ideas, but check out my Instagram for a countdown to Christmas! This will feature my little creations for each of these advent ideas.

You can never have too many bookmarks. There is nothing worse than trying to find something to mark your page with, and coming up empty. I can certainly appreciate the character a dog-earred book gives to your personal library, but I know that I like a good book mark to hold my place instead.

That being said, there are many different options for bookmarks. You can purchase a bookmark package, find a couple different ones, or create your own. For this series, I'm going to be creating my own.

I would say that bookmarks can cover a wide age-range for a gift. However, you may choose different themes, depending on who you are giving them to.

Bookmarks for kids can be fun, and they don't have to be perfect. In fact, they don't really have to be super-creative to be fun. If you are making an advent calendar for your own kids, I thought this would be a fun way to engage with them.

Instead of just creating the bookmarks, gather all of your supplies to make them. This could include markers, ink stamps, yarn, stickers of favorite characters. Depending on their age, it may be best to prepare things ahead of time, like cutting out the paper for the bookmarks, or punching holes in the paper for the yarn. This will help minimize stress.

You can get little boxes for the crafts if you want to do a new one each day, or just use this as an extra little craft. Or you can do bookmarks a couple days in the advent calendar and get a set of something for some of the other days. But I think this is a fun way to engage with kids and encourage reading.

A couple notes

Depending on the type of reader, there are many different designs you can use for the bookmarks. I made a couple for myself for the twelve days of Christmas, with a variety of differnt designs.

Although not substaintial enough to make enough for one advent calendar, there are some other ideas to go with it if you want to make a complete advent calendar.

Treats or Candies: If you know of a famous treat from a book your reader likes, those are always a fun little idea. Having Turkish Delights, like from Chronicles of Narnia was something I remember from elementary school when my class read the book.

Book Covers: Similar to textbook sleeves, if you know someone who likes to protect their books, this is a cute idea. Especially if you're good with sewing. It might take a little pre-planning to try to figure out what size to make it or to find a pattern.

Book Donations: If your kids have grown out of books, you can pick twelve books for the advent, or just however many books, and donate them to a library or something similar. It's Christmas, after all, and I think it's cool for kids to see that something they enjoyed can also bring others joy.

Stay tuned for the Twelve Days of Christmas Countdown on my Instagram page, and to see the ideas from this post come to life. Have a Merry Christmas, and we'll be back next week with our final Christmas gift post.