We’re going to Disney World on Friday! ON FRIDAY! This is our first big Disney World vacation and I wanted to make an awesome countdown calendar. I had it planned and ready to go for a few weeks ago, then time got away from us, we had to go to Savannah and now we’re days away!

We finally put our calendar together when we’re only SIX DAYS away! Sheesh! That’s hardly a countdown! Anyway, this is my favorite calendar because it’s interactive. Here’s what you need:

• a heavy board (foamcore, cardboard or I used a small corkboard)
• tacks (or maybe a glue gun)
• cups (small dixie cups would be best but I had to use large plastic cups)
• tissue paper squares
• glue
• prizes!!

Attach cups to your board–I used tacks because I was attaching it to a corkboard. But if you were using foam core you could just hot glue the cups on. One cup for each day of your countdown.

Then place your prizes inside. I picked puzzle pieces. I found a cool Mickey and Minnie Mouse puzzle because I thought it would be fun to slowly put together a puzzle as part of our countdown. The final day our cups would be empty and our puzzle complete! The puzzle pieces were so big I had to use huge plastic drinking glasses. You could do any prize–candy, stickers, etc.

Then measure tissue paper that will completely cover the top of the cups. There’s no reason to cut them into circles, just cut them big enough to cover.

Drizzle glue on the edge of the cup. Make sure to cover it because…

…now it’s time to lay down your tissue paper. Spread it out so it’s nice and taught!

Once it’s dried your calendar is ready to go! Now what do you do?

Bust one open every day! It’s so fun that even I want to punch through the paper! I have to hide it from the kids during the day because they’d break through them all in one day.

This would be fun for any countdown, including advent! Or how fun to use it as a way to give rewards, to help kids memorize a verse or even just learn parts of a story. You could do so many creative things with it!

linked to Get Your Craft On Tuesday, Take a Look Tuesday & Tutorial Tuesday