I must admit, I’m a huge fan of the dollar bins at Target! Every trip I make begins with a stroll down those aisles. It’s really no wonder my final spend is always twice what I anticipate.

On one of my last trips, I found the cutest snowman advent calendar. The countdown is done by gluing a cotton ball onto a snowman. It even counts down to New Years Eve. It is so simple, and such a great idea! Next year I see this becoming a DIY project to make our own.

What are the red dots you ask? I added those with a bingo dobber. Each dot signifies one of our 12 Days of Christmas. On those nights the kids get to open one of their special gifts. You can check out my 12 Days of Christmas post for details on this tradition. The kids love it!

Where is the chocolate?! That was my first question, too! You just can’t have an advent calendar without a piece of chocolate. Don’t fret! I’ve got that covered. This year we will have a bag of Hershey Kisses. Each night they will get a Kiss as they glue on their cotton ball.

I really love that we are moving away from the old, standard advent calendar. First of all, the candy inside was never good. How does milk chocolate start turning white? Gross. I guess it should be expected given I’m spending $1 for 24-pieces of it. Cheap chocolate-like substance that doesn’t melt in your mouth.

Last year our standard advent calendar was the source of a lot of tears! You see, last year my son (then 6) opened up his December 15th door to discover there was no candy inside. My first thought was that we somehow had a defective product. Missing candy! Upon closer inspection, I realized that none of his remaining doors had candy left.

What?! How does this happen?

My daughter, Melia (then 3), had opened each one and stole the candy out of it. Every piece of chocolate-like substance was gone. She did the same thing to her own advent calendar. That’s 22 pieces eaten in secret! To conceal her crime, she carefully closed each door and put them back. No one would know, right?!

She should have gotten an Academy Award. When I asked her about it, she shrugged her shoulders and appeared mystified. She had no idea what happened or how the candy disappeared! If we didn’t know her better, she would have gotten away with it.

So this year, I’m attempting to avoid that whole mess! At least if she glues all the cotton balls on, I can rip them back off.

Do you do a count down to Christmas? How do you keep track of the days left?