Christmas shmishmas! Who cares about that boring old holiday when there's Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day?!?! Ok just kidding, but seriously this ranks up there in my book!
So I get that this giveaway is a little late for what it is, but I really love the idea and wanted to share it with you. It's a felt advent chain countdown to Christmas. Time was a really hard concept for my now 6 year old to grasp and having this visual representation helped it make more sense to her. The links are felt with velcro closures, "Merry Christmas" is embroidered on the last solid red link, and I'll send it to you in this cute storage box so you can keep it safe until next year.
Putting the chain together and removing a link every morning has become a family tradition for us. Want to start a tradition for your family too? Here's how you can win it:
- One entry for leaving a comment about one of your family's holiday traditions. It could be any holiday!
- For a second entry, if you have a sec to look through my blog or if you like this chain idea well enough to want to see what else I'm up to, follow my blog and leave a second comment to let me know. Existing followers, you get a 2nd entry too!
You have until midnight EST Dec. 16th to enter. I'll pick a winner at random from the comments and email them on Dec. 17th. (if your email address isn't part of your profile, you'll need to leave it in your comment so I can find you if you win). I'll ship the chain to you within a day or receiving your mailing address. Contest open to international residents as well.
Good Luck!
Actually, one of my favourite traditions is the advent calendar!
ReplyDeleteI love making gingerbread houses!
ReplyDeleteWe have a "special day" plate that we use on any day worth celebrating...birthdays, dance recital days, first day of school, etc.
ReplyDeletetbmroberts at yahoo dot com
I really would like to have a tradition in place by now, by this is the third country we have lived in since our oldest has been born, and things change.
ReplyDeleteThe Christmas tree has been a constant, a stocking and Santa also, but other things have changed. This year we will likely be swimming for Christmas.
I love our advent wreath tradition that we just started last year.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful project!
My favourite tradition is waiting until the 24th to put the tree up. It makes christmas feel very contained and special.
ReplyDeleteWe make the paper version of this at our house but I think my kids would love this even more. We also decorate "people cookies". Thanks and good luck to all who enter.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is putting up the tree. The kids are always so excited, and since we got lazy and go artificial, we put it up for them (prelit!) and let them go at it. Our tree looks crazy every year, but definitely loved. This year they decorated mostly the underside, so they can lie on their backs and look at it.
ReplyDeleteEvery year for Halloween we get dressed up with a family theme. I'm getting kind of tired of it but my husband loves it!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is Christmas Eve with my boys. They each get to open 2 gifts: the first is a new set of Christmas pj's, the second is a new ornament for the tree so that someday when they're on their own they'll already have a collection for their own tree.
I'm a follower
ReplyDeleteI follow your cute blog!
ReplyDeleteWe do a Christmas Eve brunch every year. Always so fun!
ReplyDeleteWe like to act out the nativity each year. My husband reads the Bible and the kids use the figurines to act it out.
ReplyDeletesntbosch@msn.com
One of our favorite holiday traditions is to drive through the nearby neighborhoods that put out luminaries on Christmas Eve. It is so peaceful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute idea!!!
ReplyDeleteOne of our family traditions is baking Christmas cookies with the granddaughters.
My all time favorite holiday tradition is that we stay in our pjs ALL day long on Christmas! It makes for such a comfy, cozy day - I love it! :)
ReplyDeleteBest,
Michelle
daydreambelievershop {at} gmail {dot} com
On Christmas eve 'the elves' come and they put new pajamas under everyone's pillows -even the grown up children :). The fun part is that this is done when we are at a relatives home for Christmas Eve... oh, so magical! Everyone runs to their bed and says, 'Oh, look, look... the elves came...'
ReplyDeleteThis is so cute! My favorite Christmas tradition is making gingerbread houses as a family on Christmas Eve.
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas, we make lots of cookies and other yummy treats.
ReplyDeleteI introduced my grandchildren to the advent calendar this year but it was a hard concept for them to follow (at 2 and 4) so I love this link idea!! The Elf on the Shelf is our newest tradition but I love when the entire family gathers by the tree just before present opening time and we just talk about what a beautiful year it has been.
ReplyDeletechristyd8@bellsouth.net
I'm a new follower... christywins
ReplyDeletechristyd8@bellsouth.net
Our favorite tradition is the Peppermint Pig :) You can read about it here.
ReplyDeletelilbirdsmama@yahoo.com
I follow you :)
ReplyDeleteI love advent calendars! We have a hand painted one with tiny doors to open each day. The hard thing is finding little gifts that fit inside and are appropriate for little hands...
ReplyDeleteI love this chain idea!! I would love to win to include it to our little families new traditions. Growing up we always lined up youngest to oldest in the hall before going in the front room to open presents.
ReplyDeleteHeather738(at)gmail(dot)com
We always listen to the Chipmunks Christmas album on my old Fisher Price record player while decorating the Christmas tree... ever since I can remember! footprint13@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteMy two boys would set their alarm clocks earlier and earlier just to be the first one up each day in December to move the mouse in the Avon Advent Calendar! When they married and moved out I searched ebay to make sure they both had the same advent calendar to carry on the tradition!
ReplyDeleteWe celebrate Chrissy on the Eve and eat til midnight then we open all our presents!! My husband is South American and I love the tradition... no crazy trying to everything ready the night before you do it in the morning and enjoy it the same day... I am Aussie so it's a complete flip to what I grew up with too...
ReplyDeletexo Steph
New Follower! As soon as I opened your blog, I knew I was going to join!
ReplyDeleteNow that I have little kids, my favorite tradition is the Advent calendar. I made one with an activity to do daily all the way up til Xmas. Makes me slow down and spend special time with my precious girls!
ReplyDeleteon easter we do a treasure hunt that has the kigs on a wild goosehunt for loot.
ReplyDeletethis chain is a great idea for the little ones!
I love making gingerbread houses with the girls. :D
ReplyDeleteI love decorating the christmas tree while drinking hot chocolate.
ReplyDeletemcintoshsusan at hotmail dot com
We go out for breakfast on Christmas morning as a family. Then we leave an obscenely large tip for the waitress!
ReplyDeleteEvery year, the Saturday before Christmas, we spend the entire day (like 12+ hours) making candy and sweets. Then we pack it all up in holiday boxes and give it away to friends. Thanks for the giveaway! robyn(dot)geddes(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is eating cake for breakfast. One year, my oldest daughter asked Santa for cake and he brings it every year since!
ReplyDeletewe have a fancy Christmas eve party. We go bowling and then come home and eat specialty crackers, cheeses, sodas, etc. So fun!
ReplyDeleteMy four year old would flip for this! My fave tradition is our annual holiday lights drive around our town!
ReplyDeletebeckymac1 at hotmail dot com
my favorite tradition is the advent calendar- I am making one for my daughter this year, but this idea is even cuter! thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteWe ALWAYS make frosted sugar cookies for Valentine's day and pin up the valentine's we get in the hall mirror.
ReplyDeleteHot chocolate and Christmas movies!
ReplyDeleteMaking all kinds of yummy Christmas deserts and watching The Santa Clause and Charlie Brown Christmas!!
ReplyDeletekphinson@gmail.com
Opening one gift on Christmas Eve which is usually something I made not bought. Save the purchased stuff for Christmas day.
ReplyDeleteOne family tradition we have is sending out real Christmas cards!!
ReplyDeleteClever idea with the Advent Chain, I like it. I also like your tutorials, will be making the Garden Aprons soon.
Thanks for the great giveaway!
Katina
kjkoukla(athotmail...
I love receiving letters and cards.
ReplyDeletewe take the kids to pick ornaments every year.
ReplyDeleteI love going to the movies in our jammies on Christmas day. After all of the family leaves our house and the kids have played with their new stuff, we go with just our family of 5...its my favorite part!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite holiday tradition is watching "A Christmas Story" all day on Christmas day. We also go to the parade of lights every year and have since I was a baby.
ReplyDeleteI am a new follower of yours as well.
ReplyDeletewhat a great tradition! My boys are small so we don't have many tradtions yet. However, this year, we have been visited by "Fairy Blue" (I couldnt find an elf-on-the-shelf but I found a blue boy fairy) Every morning Fairy Blue is hiding somewhere in the house and has a note from Father Christmas. My 2 & 4 yr olds really believe that he becomes "real" at night.
ReplyDeleteWe always do an advent calendar I made with chocolates inside.
ReplyDeletea tradition my mum and I have is finishing the picture puzzle from the advent calendar during the nights 24/25/26 - I don't remember when it started, but one year my mum decided to put a few parts of a puzzle in each bag instead of a goodie, it's really a chanllenge to do a puzzle if you don't knwo what it looks like and you only get a few pieces at a time.
ReplyDeleteThis is clever idea,lovely box too,thanks for chance to win it.We love to decorate tree,watch movies on tv and enjoying fireworks on New Year's eve>
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays!!
Caroling and taking a treat to families on the first Monday of December is a family tradition I passed to my kids from my family.
ReplyDeleteI am now a follower of your blog, I used the networked blog follow link
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea. I may have to make one of these if I don't win. Every year for the first weekend in Advent all of my family get together at Mum and Dads. We put up the tree and lights together, eat good food and relax and enjoy each others company for a few days. It is a great way to start the Christmas season.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is reading the birth of Jesus before opening the presents
ReplyDeletemframe00@gmail.com
Our favourite Christmas tradition is decorating our tree together while listening to Christmas carols and being fun and silly as a family!
ReplyDeleteOn Christmas eve we go to the candlelight service with the kids grandparents, and on Christmas the kids look for a new ornament on the tree! dvdenter (at) gci (dot) net
ReplyDeleteI have been wanting to make a countdown chain for quite some time! This is wonderful. My favorite Christmas tradition comes from Germany. On December 5th we would leave a boot on the front porch and the next morning St. Nicolas had come and left us treats and goodies in our boots. One year, trying to be tricky, I put out my dads fishing waders instead!
ReplyDeleteThis is too cute! I love having the kids write letters to santa, then we go downtown to put the letters in Santa's mailbox and to look at the lights on monument circle. so nice:)
ReplyDeletethehappycrochetchic@yahoo.com
I am german, so we do an advent calendar, boots out on the 6th no stockings, well for decor we do, and christmas at night on the 24th, that means we get to sleep in without being woken up early.
ReplyDeletejessicarwarfield at gmail dot com
I love your blog, I am a follower via gfc
ReplyDeletejessicarwarfield at gmail dot com
I think our current favorite holiday tradition is hosting my brothers for Thanksgiving. My children cannot get enough of their uncles and I love seeing them all interact together.
ReplyDeletescarletteandcinnamon(at)gmail(dot)com
Favorite holiday tradition is making gingerbread houses with my granddaughter. Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteWe're just starting our own traditions (my little girl just turned one), but as for a personal one - I take a vacation day a week or two before Christmas, get up early and bake all day. I end up exhausted, but all my baking is complete.
ReplyDeleteGreat giveaway--thanks for the chance! My favorite Christmas tradition is having pizza for Christmas Eve dinner. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite family tradition is piling in the car and going around the neighborhood looking at christmas lights while singing christmas songs.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm a follower!
ReplyDelete