Countdown to Christmas the Crafty Way

I love countdown's to Christmas. Everything from ABC Family's "25 Days of Christmas" to advent calendars to those green and red chains paper chains we used to make in elementary school. I love that as soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers are packed in the fridge, the whole world turns into a magical snow globe filled with holiday music, movies, shopping, decorating, crafts, baking and gift giving. Anyone who knows me knows that I cannot resist a theme and the holidays give me a whole month of themed bliss. I really wanted to do a blog a day in December to countdown to Christmas but unfortunately I missed the train considering today is December 2. Aside from that, I will also be in Florida for a week starting on Saturday at the Baseball Winter Meetings where I don't count on having much time to blog. So instead, I will offer the more classic "12 Days of Christmas" version which will run from December 13-24. I will feature fun holiday craft and baked good ideas as well as Do It Yourself gifts. To hold you over until then, I offer you the classic countdown to Christmas paper chain project!

Craft: Basic "Countdown to Christmas" Paper Chain
Needed: Colorful paper, scissors, stapler and staples or glue or tape: For the paper you can use any colors: red and green or red, green and white would be the most classic for Christmas. You could also do blue and white for winter. Construction paper works best.
Additional supplies: If you want to spice yours up, use glitter, holiday stickers, photos, markers, crayons, etc to decorate the chain.

Step 1: Cut out 25 strips of paper: 1 for every day from December 1 until December 25 (Christmas).
Step 2 (optional): If you'd like to decorate the individual strips, you can add glitter, stickers, quotes, wishes, etc. before linking them to make a chain.
Step 3: Take the first strip and make it into a circle; staple, tape or glue the ends together.
Step 4: Take the second strip and loop in through the first strip and staple, tape or glue. If you're using multiple colors, make sure to go every other one. (see photo above)
Step 5: Repeat Step 4 until finished.

You can use your chain as a decoration by wrapping it around your tree or railing on your staircase or just hanging it on the wall by your bed, calendar or in a doorway. The goal is to remove a link each day until Christmas as a fun countdown.

Stay tuned for my "12 Days of Christmas" blog and Happy Holidays!