Felt Nativity Calendar Photos, Patterns, Instructions

*****CHRISTMAS 2011 UPDATE: I have now posted an updated version of this calendar with better free instructions, photos, ect. at a new blog:  Heart FELT Truths. I hope you’ll check it out! You can even order kits or completed Advent Calendars for your family!********

Here is our family’s advent calendar, derived largely from Noel Piper’s calendar that is no longer available. For more information on this calendar and how we used it on our home, please see my previous post. YOU CAN NOW ORDER A SIMILAR VERSION OF THIS CALENDAR FROM MY ETSY SHOP!

Below you will find three attachments. One is a very rudimentary pdf of felt patterns you can trace to make a nativity calendar. The second is instructions. The third is the actual story you read. Each day you add a new line to the story and place its corresponding piece onto the display. The goal is that by the end of the 25 days leading to Christmas your children will be able to tell much of the story with you on their own. If you chose to make one based off of these patterns, would you please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment on this post to let me know if it worked okay? I haven’t gotten any feedback yet from people using the patterns. I’d greatly appreciate your comments!

I hope you enjoy the photos of the nativity calendar I made below. Here are just a few notes about what I did….

• The star is made from a cheap ornament I bought at Hobby Lobby.
• The wise men’s gifts are a charm bracelet I bought at Hobby Lobby. I cut the bracelet and took the beads off that I wanted.
• The wise men’s gifts and the star are attached to the felt with pieces of 3M photo mounting strips.
• The felt is mounted to the wall with 3M photo mounting strips. I simply attached them to the back of the felt and onto the wall. We never had problems with it falling off.

You can see a photo of my friend’s nativity calendar. She made it without a pattern, simply by looking at mine. Notice that the stars and gifts are made of felt as well if you are looking for an alternative.

Felt Patterns

Advent Calendar Instructions

Advent Calendar Story

(((((2012 UPDATE: Please visit my new site HERE for an improved set of free patterns and instructions, or to purchase an Advent Calendar Kit, or a completed Advent Calendar.)

Here are some close-ups of the pieces:

All though these are fairly simple to make, if you are strapped for time I would consider making the pieces for hire. Please e-mail me (standlea@gmail.com) if you are interested.