Are you ready for the hustle & bustle of Christmas to begin? Oooohhh…I am! I absolutely LOVE Christmas time!! sigh OK….”observation time” – I feel that when the Christmas season hits, we usually tend to focus more on the kids, don’t you agree?? Of course, the wonder and joy on their faces when they experience a FABULOUS Christmas definitely HELPS. {lol} If you want to make sure your spouse knows how much you adore him/her during THIS holiday season and doesn’t feel neglected, have I got an idea for you! Cuz ya know, Christmas isn’t JUST for the little ones! ?
But, hang on to your hats because we have a quick gift for YOU real quick before you get into this craft project. We have a fun Mistletoe Madness Bundle Sale happening on our ebooks. You can get ALL FOUR for over 60% off, but only through Christmas day! Click here to get the details and purchase now.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted my husband to have something FUN to look forward to when December hit, I created the FIRST set of “Jamie’s Christmas Countdown”. Twenty-five days of L.O.V.E. just for him! I am going to show you my original Countdown and if you are SUPER busy, {Who isn’t, right?!?} there is a “quick” version that you can instantly download! 🙂
I grabbed a spool of beautiful cherry red ribbon, 25 clothespins, and some removable clips that you can put on your walls without ruining them. They are pretty cheap and you can purchase them anywhere – I got mine at Walmart. I then sat down and numbered a piece of paper from 1-25 to represent the 25 days in December leading up to Christmas and went to town planning my countdown! I put stars next to the nights that were Fridays & Saturdays, since those were the nights that I KNEW we would have time to either do a date night or stay up late. Next to each number I wrote one of three things:
A Compliment – something I LOVED about him {this made up 2/3 of the countdown} A Service – something I was going to do for him{this was HALF of the last ⅓ of the countdown} A FUN Christmas Activity – something we could go and do together – having to do with the season {this made up the remaining HALF of the last ⅓ of the countdown}
I made sure that they were ALL mixed up. BTW – don’t try to book every last weekend as things will come up, so make sure your schedule is flexible! Also – HE might secretly be planning fun things for you, so make sure to keep some of your weekend nights open. I would let him know in advance what particular nights you have “set” plans, just mark put a heart on those days on your family calendar & tell him that those are nights he should keep open. I typed up all of my different cards & scrapbooked each one. I went overboard that year and decided to do them ALL different themes/colors/sizes. Yep, I was crazy… in love! Here are a few of the “Compliment” cards: Make sure you take this opportunity to point out to your spouse ALL of the wonderful things that you love about him/her! You can NEVER compliment a person too much!! Let them know how much you adore the funny quirks that only YOU know about! 🙂 Feel free to throw some of your inside jokes on the cards! I definitely threw in my share! I had so much fun reflecting on our years together and jotting down the things I loved about him. NEXT – the “Service” cards! Here’s an example of one of mine: One night he came home to a trail of rose petals leading to our Master Bathtub where a candlelit bubble bath waited. {Wink} …thus the term “bubbly”…. Think about things your spouse would REALLY enjoy and then use those as your “service” cards! For example, my husband LOVES back scratches and I give super “wimpy” ones… or so he says. 🙂 In my defense, uhhhhh… ok, so I AM a wimp! {lol} Anyway, I promised to give him an AMAZING back rub! I also don’t love to cook, so I made the ultimate sacrifice and told him I would create ANY dessert he wanted. {That was a HUGE sacrifice on my part… and do you know what he “ordered”?? Apple pie! You better believe I made it from scratch! Longest five hours of my life. J/K…maybe it only took me three?!?} You get my point, right? Remember that December is going to be a CRAZY busy month for you… so don’t promise anything you can’t deliver on! 🙂 LAST but not least are the actual FUN Christmas activities that you will do together. I chose to keep them all a secret and use the cards as “teasers”. Here are a few of mine: Some other activities I planned for us was a Christmas “Movie-a-thon” & watching all of our FAVs while eating our favorite Christmas treats, checking out the lights at Temple Square {this was when we lived in Utah}, planning a night under the stars {we camped out by the Christmas Tree on a blow-up mattress}, going to the Festival of Trees with his family, etc. They don’t ALL have to be Christmas-related! We had an entire night of Wii games. There are SO many fun Christmas things you can do together! This is where you can also involve the whole family! Have a “make a gingerbread house” night or decorate Christmas cookies or go caroling to your neighbors. Just make sure they are all activities that he {or she} would enjoy! THEN – you, of course, need to end the Countdown with a LOVE note!! Now – if you are thinking… TARA!! Are you crazy?!? When am I going to find time to scrapbook 25 cards?? No worries! I found a pre-made cute Christmas note card that you can download to use for YOUR cards. Just So Scrappy has super cute digiscrapbooking kits. She created a FREE {ooooohhhh…and we LOVE free….} download that would be perfect for this countdown idea! Just right-click on the image below & drop it into a Word Doc to resize it to be ANY size you would like! I would suggest printing these on white card stock, as they are in color. Cut them out and if you would like to make them “pop,” adhere them to Christmas-colored paper.
I also typed up the numbers #1-25 in my FAVORITE font that you can download & cut apart. THEN – instead of putting your cards in an envelope, just flip them over and adhere the numbers on the back. Voila! You are done! Oh yeah, don’t forget to jot the actual “script” on each card! 🙂 I then put up the removable hooks in our entryway, strung the festive ribbon along it, and clothespinned the cards up. It looked FAB-U-LOUS!!
I made sure to put it up the last day of November before he got home from work. He was extremely surprised to come home to this and was SO excited when I explained that he would get to read one each morning for the entire month of December!
If you still have children at home, you can involve them by letting them “help” Daddy read his card each morning. You could make this countdown something for the whole family but in my humble opinion, I think your spouse would be pretty touched if you did this JUST for him/her!!
.…AND….this was one of our most “commented on” Christmas decor!! All of our friends and family LOVED not only the idea behind this but also how festive it was and how it completely dressed up our entryway! 🙂 Have fun creating your OWN Christmas Countdown! Update: New for 2014!
We know how much you all loved this DIY crafty countdown… that’s why we’ve created a printable version just for YOU! Visit our post: Christmas Countdowns Printable Packs for the full scoop on how to create a gorgeous Christmas advent for your sweetie! The best part? We’ve designed not just 1, but 2 countdowns! In addition to a special banner for just your spouse, we’ve created a DIY countdown for the WHOLE FAMILY! Start creating cherished Christmas memories today!
