Live Advent Tree

I love doing holiday crafts with the kids. It encourages us to slow down and be creative together as a family without breaking the piggy banks. One affordable idea that the kids seem to appreciate is decorating our huge tree in front of our house. You can apply this idea to any holiday or celebration. For Halloween we cut black bats out of foam craft sheets (89 cents ea. at Michael's) strung fishing line or kite string through a needle, then sewed it 3/4 of an inch from the edge then tied them to different levels of branches. You can find templates anywhere on the Internet or free hand your own.

For Thanksgiving I came up with the idea of making our tree into a Live Advent Tree by purchasing red, brown, orange, and yellow foam craft sheets. I had my daughters friend free hand 3 different styles of leaves plus an acorn onto white paper. We cut out the designs and used them as patterns for the foam sheets. You can use a marker or pencil to trace the pattern but know that if you use a dark color it will show up as an outline around your leaves. I choose to use a pencil and when I trace onto a dark color I press harder so I can see the outline of the pattern. You'll then cut out a leaf/acorn for each day reaching up to Thanksgiving, then sew fishing line through them and hang from the tree. As each day goes by one of the kids will pull a leaf off. We can then count how many leaves are left and will then know how many more days til Thanksgiving. You can make an extra special glitter leaf to represent Thanksgiving day! The kids will look forward to the routine!

If you love the idea but don't have enough time or kids to help, my neighbor strings silk oak leaves to her tree. It's beautiful and adds a realistic touch. Be creative, glue buttons, glitter, sticks, macaroni, or even spread peanut butter on them sprinkled with bird seed, anything to get the little ones involved and their creative minds thinking! You can do snowflakes for Christmas, hearts for Valentines, and stars for the 4th of July. Before you know it you'll be starting a neighborhood trend!