This morning, I woke up to a light dusting of snow in the yard, so it is definitely appropriate now to start talking Christmas crafts.

It is apparent by all my other unfinished crafts that I can only handle one small thing at a time:

• A table runner for the dining room remains only a vision in my head and some fabric that I purchased
• A starburst mirror over the headboard of our bedroom is only a vision, and barely that
• Jameson’s Easter basket will now need to wait until closer to Easter this coming year, but all the materials are purchased
• Jameson’s birthday garland is waiting for me to complete!

So when I decided I wanted to do a Christmas advent calendar, I already gave myself permission to leave it incomplete this year. In fact, my whole plan hinges on that fact.

The idea started last year in Pottery Barn or one of those other fancy-shmancy stores had a lovely stocking advent calendar garland for sale for some $75-$100 bucks. It never went on clearance, because of course the adorable thing sold out. This year, they’re popping up all over the place.

{from Horchow}

A couple are even on Amazon.

{from Amazon}

I found cheaply made ones on Ebay, and expensive ones on Etsy.

I figured that I could make one that looked great for less though: without making the stockings themselves. That’s key, because I’m lazy, remember? I pinned this lovely idea instead.

{from Canadian House & Home}

Except I really, really wanted mine made of knitted stockings. So I combed the internet. Do you know how hard it is to find anything that looks good when you search “knitted stocking”? I threw in different words to broaden and narrow my search, but Google failed me.

There were a few on eBay that looked promising, but they were expensive and I couldn’t find enough of them. What I kept finding instead were those faux velvet and fluffy looking stockings, but that totally defeats my purpose of looking handmade, right?

Instead, I had a moment of epiphany. My old standby, Factory Direct Craft. They had them, and they had them cheap!

{from Factory Direct Craft!}

Not only will I now have stockings, but I can also use a few mittens, how adorable will that be? I plan on hanging them off the stairway instead of the mantle.

So the plan from here is to work on the cheap: I want to collect ornaments on clearance for the gift part of this advent calendar. I don’t plan on stuffing these with more gifts than Jameson needs year after year. Instead, I want to use the Jesse tree story with ornaments that symbolize different Bible passages.

I first really understood the Jesse tree last year while at church they had all the children hanging ornaments. I love the idea! This will be a great way to celebrate Christmas year after year. I’ll keep you posted on my ornaments finds.