Christmas Countdown

A handful of years ago, I started this Christmas countdown tradition.  I considered skipping it this year, since the boys can all read a calendar now.  But on December 1st, the pestering begging requesting began.

To hang it from the mantle, I staple a piece of twine to the top.  To make the countdown clips, I glued numbers to tagboard gift tags I bought at Target, and then used hot glue to attach them to clothespins.

Each little stocking holds 5 pieces of candy (the real reason the boys are so insistent this goes up, I think).  I've used different things over the years to hold the candy--paper sacks, cellophane bags with tissue paper--but this year I found these little stockings at Walmart for a reasonable price.

It's nice that the boys look forward to simple traditions!