The Countdown to Christmas is on—24 days until Christmas.

We are counting down to Christmas with a new way to celebrate the season every day. The holidays can get expensive, but your traditions and family fun don’t have to!

Our countdown to Christmas will provide tips and tricks for an inexpensive holiday season. Think of it as your frugal advent calendar—we’ll share our favorite free and frugal options for holiday fun, Christmas traditions, gifts and decorations.

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Over the years, we have counted down to Christmas in a variety of ways—we’ve had paper chains & advent calendars, chocolate treats & good deeds, wall charts & holiday decorations. They range from inexpensive crafts to more expensive & elaborate calendars, but for the last few years, our advent countdown has been completely FREE! It’s one of our most inexpensive holiday traditions.

At the beginning of December, when I pull out the box(es) of holiday decorations, I gather & count all the Christmas storybooks. We have stories about the first Christmas, stories about animals, stories about Christmas trees, stories about Santa and at least 3 copies of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. I wrap each one—in last year’s leftover paper, no less—and stack them under the Christmas tree.
Each night, we count the books to see how many days until Christmas. The girls take turns opening one of them, and we share a story before bedtime. My favorite ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas book is wrapped in a special paper—the last remnants of a gold roll we used a few years ago—so we always know to save it for Christmas Eve. (That reminds me. It’s probably almost time to buy a new roll of wrapping paper for this. It’s going on my after-Christmas shopping list.)

The girls get to unwrap something almost every night, cutting down on the “Can we open just one present now?” thing—even though it’s something we’ve owned for years. It’s also a fun way to squeeze in all those holiday books we’ve collected while creating memories we all cherish. The girls are already asking when we get to start the countdown.

The answer is “I don’t know”—I guess I better go count & wrap some books!