I have such fond memories of Advent Calendars.  Ours was simple— a long felt strip with hard candies tied on–one for each day.  Having a one year old and a three year old, I have been thinking about starting the tradition again–this time a bit different.  Last year, I had the idea of using tin cans and other recyclables, but never went thru with it.   This year, thanks to Kids Craft Weeklytheir advent challenge gave me the push I needed.I wanted there to be as much input from my kids as possible—-somewhat difficult with a 1 and a 3 year old. But I had them create colorful artwork with paints (3 year old) and oil crayons (1 year old). This would be cut into strips to cover the tin cans and place inside the baby food jars.My three year old also helped out with the numbers. I wrote out numbers and placed velum(tracing paper) over it—he worked hard to trace the numbers. I absolutely love the squiggly lines of a new writer.I took his work to a local copy shop to reduce, darken and cut and paste to make double digit numbers. This may seem like a lot of work, but it was worth it to me—it makes me so happy to see his efforts.I used circles cut from empty boxes for the numbers. A magnet, glued in back, holds them to the tin cans. A mini clothes pin (use LOTS of glue) fastens them to the baby jars.What’s Christmas without a little glitter?So far, we have gotten the 12 days before Christmas taken care of…and may do a few more or leave this many for THIS year.The tin cans are perfect for leaving a little trinket or goody. But I also love the idea of having slips of paper with a fun activity for the family to do or a sweet note from mommy daddy, or Santa. I am off today to begin to fill them—will fill YOU in on what I decide. What are you putting in yours?