November is the month I plan to get ahead for Christmas... and getting an advent calendar sorted for the children is one of the more pleasurable tasks on the list. This year we're keeping things nice and simple with our new Cotton Twist Make Your Own Advent Calendar.

The beauty of this make your own advent calendar is that you can decide what you'd like to put in the envelopes. Will it be crowd pleasing chocolate coins or mini experiences to get you and your children in the mood for Christmas?  I did my first 'experience' advent calendar for my children last year, and it was a great way for me to enjoy the run up & get excited about Christmas too, rather than racing around like a crazed woman in a panic (although I did my fair share of that too).

Our Make your own Advent Calendar comes in a pencil case sized tin with mini envelopes, graphic present stickers and the pegs and twine to hang your calendar up - you can choose to add some chocolate coins in too or print out our ideas for experiences below. Then when you hang your calendar you can get creative by adding baubles, foliage or simple snowflake & star cut outs like we did here.

There is so much going on in December that I'll fill up the days quite quickly - the headline grabbing events for my children being ice skating, pantomine, school Christmas lunch (they love that one as much as I do as it's zero effort from me!) and going out to buy the Christmas tree. Then there are the simple wins like 'watching a Christmas film,' 'making hot chocolate,' and 'writing Christmas cards.' And for the days that I can't think of anything, I'll just pop in a chocolate coin.

If you want some ideas of what to add - or have some similar things to us going on then here's a handy print out or all kinds of Christmas activities - if you print this out on an A4 sheet then each activity will fit neatly inside our advent calendar envelopes - there's even some spaces to add your own activities.