When I was a child, I loved advent calendars. My mother always purchased the chocolate advent calendars, and even though I didn’t eat the chocolate, I loved opening up each day’s box to see what shape the chocolate would be in. There are so many really creative and fun advent calendars today!

I purchased a super cute advent calendar from a non-profit dedicated to helping rural women while traveling in Vietnam years ago, prior to having kids. Because I used to travel extensively for work, the first year we used this, I just left a cute note for Mr. Dolphin in each square. Then, three years ago, I purchased a bunch of beers, wrapped it up, put a sticker on each one, then put a matching sticker into the advent calendar. Each morning, Mr. Dolphin would pull out the sticker and match it to one of the beers. Mr. Dolphin loves to try new beers, so it was a huge hit and I did it again last year.

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Brown paper lunch bags made wrapping much easier!

Lion enjoyed helping Mr. Dolphin match the stickers to the beers last year, so I wanted to make sure there was a way for our kids to get in on the action this year. Mrs. Paintbrush did a book advent calendar and I loved the idea. I’ll still do the advent beers for Mr. Dolphin, but will also do books for Lion and Panda. Lion loves books, so I think he will be really excited about it. We’ll just use one single advent calendar, but the sticker for each day will match to one beer as well as one book.

Here are the books (in no particular order) I’m planning on using this year:

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One stack of books, waiting for stickers.

Here are a few tips for putting together an advent book calendar affordably. We already own quite a few of these holiday books, which were either gifts or purchased used. I purchased several on eBay last year; buying books in lots can produce great savings. I got nine books for under twenty dollars (search: “Christmas picture books lot”). I picked up Polar Express for two dollars at our local Friends of the Library book sale. A couple more were acquired from a nearby kids’ consignment store which allows kids to pick out one free book each month; lots of holiday books make their way to the consignment store. Additionally, I have a list of books that I will check out form the library to supplement our existing collection. The great thing about using some from the library (other than the cost-free nature) is that I can easily change up the ones we use each year!

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Featuring some of Mr. Dolphin’s favorite (and local) breweries.

As far as the beer portion of the advent calendar, here’s what last year’s collection looked like. For anyone interested in putting together an advent beer calendar, here are a few tips. The first year, I doubled up on a couple of beers. I purchased holiday packs from Samuel Adams and Flying Dog Brewery, each with four different beers each. That gave me eight different beers, and I doubled them up so they covered sixteen different days. I also purchased a couple of other six-packs of beers and some single beers from our local liquor store. Purchasing the holiday packs are useful because they come with a large assortment; some packs have as many as six different kinds of beers! Last year, I didn’t double up as much and just started stockpiling them around October. I purchased quite a few six-packs and hid them in various locations around the house. I also purchased about ten single beers, though it ends up being more expensive per beer to do it this way. Ultimately, because I purchased so many six-packs, this meant we had a lot of extra beer and we took beers to parties and also just had a lot leftover at home (meaning I didn’t have to purchase any beer for Mr. Dolphin for the next couple of months). I found it easiest to wrap the beers by putting them into paper lunch bags, then tying the top with kitchen twine. I placed all the beers in a large box to keep them contained and prevent them being knocked down since they spent the first year on the floor in front of the fireplace.

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Getting ready for this year’s advent calendar, with a different sticker for each square.

The books and beer version of our advent calendar is the Dolphin family’s fun way of counting down to Christmas! If you use an advent calendar, what kind do you have?