Each year, I promise to buy an Advent calendar or make some sort of Advent countdown and each year it never happens. So this year, I vowed to do it.

I knew I wanted to make a countdown instead of a calendar and I also wanted to use materials I already had in the house. I happen to have an embarrassing amount of cylinder vases and thought I might try to utilize those. So I picked 25 vases of varying heights and set them on my sideboard. I found a fun font (try www.dafont.com or www.fontspace.com for some free ones) and printed out numerals from 1 to 25. I cut them in small rectangles and affixed them to the cylinders using double-sided tape.

I then printed out Bible verses for each day and cut them so that they would rest in a place card holder. In the picture below, you will see Day 1′s scripture verse set to the side in the holder.

The plan is to fill each vase with water and set a floating candle in the top, lighting each one as Advent progresses day by day. I currently have them all set on the sideboard, but I could just as easily break them up into groupings and set them around the house.

There it is! My quick, easy Advent Countdown!