I’ve been wanting to do some sort of count-down calendar for the boys for each night of Chanukah, so this year I had the idea of making these small bags — and the fantastic thing about it is that these also hold little sweet tchotchkes.
To make these, I just needed stencils (although you could free-hand these), paint (this year I am going with a more turquoise color than standard-issue blue), a pounce brush for the stencil, and little paper bags (these were 3/$1 at Hobby Lobby). Since we have two boys, we did two sets of bags, with the numbers 1 through 8 for each night of Chanukah.
The boys helped me paint in the stencils, and they did a great job!
In front of the mantle, I hung a pretty string of yarn, so that one side would be for Shug and the other for Shugie:
(If you’re a McCarty Pottery collector too, yes that is one of their menorahs! I keep it on display all year!)
Inside each bag, there will be a little goodie (like an interesting piece of chocolate, a la this ladybug below — or the sweet Pez snowman I found), along with a note as to where that night’s present is ‘hidden’:
So each night they will light their menorah, then go to that night’s bag (i.e. third night = bag #3). They are so excited to open the bags!
