Advent Calendars

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but bear with me for just a moment...

I've been wishing for a kid-friendly advent calendar for a few years now, but have never found one that I just fell in love with. Growing up, we made a countdown chain out of construction paper every year. Here's the chain we made last year, but with preschoolers, it usually end's up being Mom's chain. Making it & tearing off just one loop every day didn't seem to hold their attention.

This year, all these great homemade ideas have just fallen into my lap... so I may start thinking about making one! Not sure when I'll do that with boxes to unpack, Christmas presents & curtains still needing to be made, decorating & baking to be done! Here's a few links for those of you that may be wondering what you're going to do for yours:

• Kids Craft Weekly has ideas for advent calendars you can make with little ones.
• The Crafty Crow shows a sample & links to 17 beautiful calendars, most obviously mom-made, but kid-friendly.
• Martha Stewart, of course, has some ideas, too.
• My sister made a cute one last year using matchboxes & family photos. I keep thinking maybe she'll post a tutorial... hint, hint... Hers was published in Somerset's Holidays & Celebrations magazine this year! Here's a picture of it with my niece pointing to Elizabeth & me on one of the matchboxes!
  

So what does your family do for advent / countdown to Christmas?