A Christmas countdown

Coming from a German family, advent has always been a staple in our household. So I made one of these for me and one for my sister. I still buy the chocolate ones too though! Since the pieces and tiles are cut from 1/8″ baltic birch, I was able to make two at the same time. My daughter helped me with the painting which took a very long time but was worth it to make this very colourful version.

My sister told me that my little niece gets very excited every day to add a new piece to the calendar. That makes me happy. The pattern originally called for little nails on which the pieces would hang but my boyfriend had the much better idea of adding magnets to both the calendar and the back of the pieces. This made it easier to use and store. We also countersunk the magnets on the calendar so they would sit flush. I also bought Christmas cloth bags from the craft store to store the pieces in.

Pattern from Alex Fox