While many are shouting ‘too soon!’ I have to exercise great restraint not to jump head first into holiday crafting, décor, and baking come November 1^st!

But it is now nearly the middle of November, so I feel it’s okay to start with the holiday crafts!

First up, my take on the Advent Calendar. The tradition actually dates back to the mid-19th century, when German Protestants made chalk marks on doors or lit candles to count the days leading up to Christmas. They’ve evolved quite a bit since then to include quite traditional variations that include religious images or stories each day leading up to Christmas, to the more secular and fun variations that offer chocolate or candy.

My take is easy to make and allows you to fill each day with whatever you wish – chocolate, candy, a thought or quote, a toy, the sky’s the limit really. A friend made one with different handmade wax melts for each day which I think is a lovely idea.

I simply used decorative twigs and branches that I found at a craft store (you could easily collect them on a walk through the forest and then spray paint them whatever color you wanted), small gift bags, a single hole punch, number stickers, and ribbon.

Arrange the branches in a container of your liking, perhaps a planter or urn, I found a large silver vase and it worked perfectly.

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Terrariums are so hot right now that I thought, ‘why not create a festive variation for the Holiday Season?’

Terrariums are traditionally used to house plants or in particularly adventurous varieties, reptiles, amphibians, or terrestrial invertebrates! When used for plants, they are essentially indoor gardens in a sealed container. The plants and soil in the terrarium release water vapor. The vapor is then collected onto the walls of the terrarium and trickles down to the soil – essentially recycling water. I always found that when decorating my house for the holidays, I would be left with random decorations that I liked but that didn’t quite make the cut for the tree. I chose to use all my oddball decorations left over from seasons past, including those broken ornaments, chipped and well worn pieces, to create a holiday terrarium. Not only do these look amazing dotted around the house in the holiday season, but you can also remove all the decorations from within them and use them as actual plant terrariums for the rest of the year. That way, you are really making the most out of them. This company, for example, sells indoor plants australia which could be grown in the terrariums should you please.