When our boys were too small to understand what an advent calendar was I still wanted a way for them to be able to count the days until Christmas.
While we were decorating our tree, the boys had chosen to put candy canes on it. Then it came to me, why not put one on it for each of our two sons for each day until Christmas? When the last candy cane was left they knew the next day was Christmas. It didn't matter when we put up our tree we just counted the number of days left and adjusted.
Of course those first years, the bottom of the tree was a little heavy with the candy canes compared to the top where they couldn't reach, but what did it matter? It worked great and we started a new tradition at our house.
One year after they were gone from home, I had decided not to put to candy canes on the "fancy" tree. One of the boys stopped by, he told me point blank something was missing. Even with lace and bows, the candy canes were required decorations at our house, and I am so glad they remembered.
Source: My sons and I, 30 years ago.
By Ann Winberg from Loup City, NE
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