Countdown to Christmas: Musical Advent Calendar

Disclosure: I was provided product from Balsam Hill to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

For those of you who arrived here from One Artsy Mama, welcome welcome! You already know the back story to this post, so please bear with me while I explain to others who don’t know. :)

I’ve partnered with Balsam Hill along with 23 other bloggers to bring to you a Countdown to Christmas. Not just any countdown, but a countdown talking about what Christmas is to us! Fun right?! P.S. There’s a GIVEAWAY involved as well!

Christmas is the most magical time of the year. Don’t you agree? I find that it brings out the greatest in people. I’ve noticed that I see more demonstration of love and appreciation during this time of the year. People are more helpful and think about others rather than themselves. Christmas is family. Christmas is love. And I love it!

Christmas is traditions. One of my family’s favorite Christmas tradition is counting down to Christmas. We’ve actually started a collection of Christmas countdowns. Yes, a Christmas Countdown Collection! We have a giant wall mounted advent calendar that we built a couple of years ago, we also have an outdoor Christmas countdown marquee sign that we built this year, and now we have a new member in our Christmas countdown collection: Balsam Hill’s Musical Advent Calendar.

Musical Advent Calendar

We are absolutely in love with this Musical Advent Calendar. Not only is it beautiful, its music is out of this world. Each time you open a door, a different Christmas melody plays. I’ve been known to open the doors throughout the day just to hear the music. hehe You can hear a sampling of the music on Balsam Hill’s YouTube Channel. BONUS you can place little goodies behind each door. There’s quite a bit of space in there too!

Another one of our family traditions is adding a new ornament to our Christmas tree. Not just any ornament though, it has to be something that represents something we have done or experienced during the year. This year we added a beautiful mermaid ornament. Why a mermaid? Because this year we did not go by the ocean like we usually do every year. We regretted not going, but we just had too much on our plates and didn’t get a chance to go. We felt that putting something that represented that would be a reminder that sometimes you have to work really hard to make things happen. If you take the easy way, you may miss out on something special… something that means a lot to you. And that’s what happened to us.

We also do Christmas Eve baking, such a fun family tradition as well. We always make a bunch of different sweets. Our favorite would have to be sugar cookies! When we first started making them it would take a good part of the morning, however the process has changed a lot over the years. As my daughters get older, they are helping so much more. We are now two rolling the dough while my youngest cuts out the cookies and sprinkles them with candy. My husband’s job is to handle the actually baking. Of course we have to have Christmas music playing as we bake.

Here’s a cute photo of my daughters I shared last year on Instagram. We had just finished baking all our sugar cookies.

Goodness, I’ve blabbed a lot haven’t I? It just proves how much I love Christmas. hehe. Now that you know (in detail haha) what Christmas is to me, make sure to stop by Decorated Chaos tomorrow to see what Christmas is to Jennifer.

I mentioned a giveaway didn’t I? I sure did! Make sure to visit Balsam Hill, they are hosting a fabulous giveaway! You can get the chance to win a $100 gift card. You might just be one of 25 lucky winners!

I’d LOVE to know what Christmas is to you and do you have any special family traditions?

Have a FABULOUS day!