The vision of my family marking down the days until Christmas, preferably in footed pajamas holding little cups of cocoa, has fueled quite a few Advent purchases. There's the stocking garland to hang on the mantle, the tree quilt that hangs on the door, and probably at least one more that I'll discover when I start unpacking our Christmas boxes. However, the actual countdown never happens as expected. Life gets busy, I get burnt out around week three, or we fall behind on our Advent activities. So, quite a few times, we've jumped into the holidays with our Advent calendar began but long forgotten. This got me thinking this year about what would be the absolute simplest Advent calendar I could come up with? I've landed on this one, and I think it fits the bill. To be the easiest, it needed four no-fuss requirements: 

1) Versatile: This Advent calendar can be used as is, stored in a 8x10 frame, saved in a page protector, or mod-podged onto something. You could even laminate a copy for each of your kids. Easy peasy. 

2) Use Everyday Materials: You can count down the days with stickers, markers, glitter glue, chalk, crayon, Sharpie, or whatever your heart desires. If you've framed it or laminated  it, you can use dry erase crayons or markers on it. This also lets you count-down the days again and again- helpful for littles learning their numbers. If you like, there's even an included sheet of ornaments to decorate and cut out. 

3) No Focus on Activities: Yes, I love activities- and I might even end up including some. But I wanted a bare-bones, activity optional, purely numerical, minimal commitment countdown. You can do no activities, or circle a few special activity days on the countdown to look forward to. Of course, if you do want to have an activity every day, I've included a planning sheet for that too. 

4) Pretty: I like choices, so I'm including several different designs. If you have an idea for a color combo that I haven't included drop me an email and I'll see what I can do. So far I've included choices in green, red and grey- but the more options the merrier!

5) Free: Which makes five, but I think it still counts (wink). I had fun designing this, so I'm happy to pass it along free of charge. Of course, this means, please; no selling, sharing or copying on your own site, or any other Grinchy behavior. 

Wishing us all a peaceful, cocoa-filled beginning to the holiday season!

::Click on the picture below for the Free Printable::

More Fun Advent Ideas: