Advent Calendar for the hostel

I've lived in hostels for a few years now and I usually don't make it home to my parents for Christmas because I am busy working at the Christmas market here in Edinburgh. However things are different this year and I have a lot of time on my hands. I am still not going home for Christmas because the plain tickets cost more than I can afford. So I am using my time, doing all the things I didn't have time for the last couple of years: baking biscuits, decorating the tree, drinking mulled wine and making decorations for the hostel. 

One thing I already wanted to do last year but didn't have the time for was crocheting an Advent Calendar. In case you are from a country where they are not very common: they have 24 bags or doors, one for each day from 1st to 24th December and are meant to make the time until Christmas a little sweeter for children. They are a big thing in Germany and I don't know a single child in Germany that doesn't have one. Even nurseries have one where every child gets their turn to open one door or bag or parcel. Over here in the UK the simple ones with wee doors behind which you find a bit of chocolate are the norm and I think most kids here have one of those as well. 

When I was a child however most kids I knew also had one that the parents or grandparents would fill for them with little toys, sweets, chocolate, useful things for school or the child's latest obsession (in my case stamps from all over the world at some point). 

And so this year to show a little tradition from my home country but also to simply make it a little more Christmassy I am the one making an Advent Calendar for the (hostel)kids.

First I crocheted 24 little bags. Mine are all kinds of different sizes, since I used a lot of left over yarns and depending on their strength I had to adjust the number of stitches in the bottom row. There are little gaps in the second row from the top for a string so I can close the bags and attach them to the fire place. Since it is really close to 1st December and you might not have enough time to crochet 24 bags, You could also use felt instead, because it's really easy to work with and saw together. 

Then I got really thin craft foam sheets and used a biscuit cutter as a stencil. The advantage with those is that they leave a clear imprint on the foam but you don't have ugly marker stains on your stars and even, if you screw things up a little when you write the numbers on the stars you can just turn them around and trz again. With the stencil the stars don't have a "bad side".

With a simple black marker I wrote the numbers on the stars and glued those with regular liquid glue to the little bags. 

And I used simple ribbon for wrapping presents as sting to close the bags. It is cheap and looks festive. I am sure you all know the trick to make it curly, don't you? 

This is what the finished bags look like. 

And here they all are. I also crocheted a band to hold all the bags. That way I don't have to use thump tags for every single bag. Instead I tied them with the ribbon to the band. They are not in order which makes the search for the right bag a little more exciting. 

Molly is already looking forward to 1st December, when we open the first bag.