Countdown to Christmas (A Printable)

This week officially starts my favorite time of year. Not Thanksgiving, but that anticipation that seems to start right about this time and carries through until Christmas. If I close my eyes I can still conjure up that feeling from when I was a wee schoolgirl in our cozy old school building. The floors and walls were all dark wood, there was the ever-present aroma of crayons and pencil shavings, and the heater was coal-fed. I always found a reason to sharpen my pencil on coal-delivery days so I could steal a glance out of the window (coal was something my grandparents talked about, and not something seen often in the eighties). There were Christmas decorations on the classroom doors, and the teacher devoted some time each week to an arts and crafts project to surprise your parents with (my mom still has some of those. Or all of those, actually). There was that quiet hum of excitement that started right before Thanksgiving, and lasted until we kids left the classroom with our candy canes in hand with at least a whole week off from school.

When I think back to those cozy days, one little thing stands out in my mind--the mimeographed Santa Claus worksheet with numbers one through twenty-four that we received every year right around this time. We colored these in school, and took them home to hang up, excitedly counting down the days until Christmas. For some reason this one little thing stands out in my mind quite vividly.

So I made one. For you, for me, for anyone you know who misses being a kid and the silly little things we used to look forward to at this time of the year. Or hey, maybe even for a kid.

(I got the Santa image here).

It's not mimeographed in cold purple ink, but you get the idea. I'd think printing on card stock would give the sturdiest results, but back in the day our plain old copy paper held up just fine :) You can use cotton balls, fluffy bits of quilt batting, pom-poms, you get the idea. Simply start by covering number one on the first day of December and work your way through the month. Or, y'know, have your kids do it (although I don't know why they get to have all the fun). You can click here or on the image above to download the file.

Enjoy!

Linking up here:
Sundays: Submarine Sunday

Monday: Made By You Mondays, Craftastic Monday

Tuesday: Homework

Wednesdays: Your Whims Wednesday

Friday: Weekend Link Party, Finish It Up Friday