Beachcombing Advent Calendars
Everyone loves a countdown calendar — the fun of opening up a little surprise present each day, the anticipation of the next day's gift, and looking forward to lining up all your treasures at the end are irresistible.
While some people might love a traditional chocolate-filled advent calendar, a calendar with a different whiskey to taste every day, or a calendar with makeup samples, Washington State beachcomber Ruth Smethers makes a different kind of countdown calendar: a beachcombing advent calendar.
Right after Christmas, Ruth heads to her local drugstore and buys up a bunch of chocolate advent calendars that didn’t sell by Christmas. Last year, she got ten of them for about 25 cents each! It doesn’t really matter what’s inside or what they look like on the cover, because she's going to change both of those things.
Once Ruth gets the countdown calendars home, she carefully opens the end of the box and pulls out the tray that holds the chocolates. She takes out all the chocolates and sets them aside.
She then sprays the box on the front and back with some bright or shiny spray paint, covering up the art on the original advent calendar.
With a permanent marker, Ruth puts a number on each of the “doors” of the box. You can put them in order or randomize them. Ruth gives her calendar a name and message, and adds little decorations to bedazzle the front.
Now comes the fun part: picking out beach finds to put in each compartment in the plastic tray. Ruth labels some items that might need some explanation and puts them in one of the compartments with a little paper slip.
Since the compartments are pretty small, this is a great place to make some tiny bottles or jars filled with sand or little beach finds.
Ruth likes to share some of her favorite beach finds in some of the compartments. Once she has all of the compartments filled, she puts the plastic tray back in the box, ready to send off to her favorite beachcombers.
So what does Ruth do with all the chocolate? Ruth explains, “I opened them up at school, so the kids could eat the candy and I wouldn’t eat it!”
So, once the dust settles from Christmas, consider making a trip to a local store near you that has advent calendars on sale, and pick some up to make next year. Be sure to take the chocolate out right away. And you don't have to wait until Christmas — you could count down to a birthday, a fun trip, or another event during the year!
What will you fill your beachcombing countdown calendar with?
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