No waste advent, family traditions and new ideas <3

I've had the same one since I was a little girl, my mum made them for my sisters and me when we we were young. Over the years my mum has been adding to the collection, she made my daughter one, and my husband, my niece and nephew and brother in law, we all have our own, very special advent calendar. This year my mum has been working hard on a gorgeous cross-stitched calendar for my little boy.

​Each day has a little box tied to it with a treat inside and a festive picture underneath to count down the days. I love it so much each year it brings such memories of my childhood, Christmas Eve always contained a little gift, earrings when I was older, or a treasure hunt when my sisters and I were younger. I am so incredibly lucky to have such a talented mum. 

​Since my Christmas Mini shoots finished I've been left with a  little less Christmas cheer in my day so I fell into the google and Pinterest black hole and started looking at all the other gorgeous ideas out there for re-usable calendars and who knew there were so many out there! 

Hobby Craft have some amazing sets, so you can personalise yours as you wish.

Glitter and Caffeine (amazing blog tittle!!!) has some beautiful ideas to get crafty this advent season.

If you don't feel so crafty, but still want to invest in a re usable advent calendar to start a new tradition and reduce waste Etsy and Not on The High Street have some amazing UK sellers, here are a couple of my favourites:

LisaAngelLtd   has a beautiful personalised LED calendar, or a wonderful advent train!

BettyLovesUK has a really sweet tree which you add colourful baubles to - but her last Christmas order is tonight! So get in there quickly!

Phoebesflummery offers a wooden box calendar with a scandi feel, perfect for little toys or treats!

The Alphabet Gift Shop has a very festive wooden reindeer! I know my kids would love one of these (but nothing beats Nanna's special calendars in this house!).

Bespoke & Oak Co offer this fabulous personalised 'Count Down to Christmas Advent Box'

From wooden boxes to fabric designs, reusable advent calendars are the way forward and here are some ideas of gifts to go inside them.

• small toys (depending on the size of your boxes)
• handmade treats

• chocolates from a box instead of individually wrapped ones
• jokes
• quotes or poems
• funny little memories from the year.

I can't wait for Joshua to see his calendar and I'd love to see pictures of yours this year too!


On my googling search I came across Natalie Moss's blog, a few weeks back she posted about Christmas gifts. Natalie is a Maternity photographer in Surrey, she has blogged about this week.