Countdown to Kiss-mas

Countdown to “Kissmas.” (Kissmas — Christmas — get it?)

This is the second Christmas countdown that I mentioned a couple of days ago.

Back in the days of yore when my kiddies were little, tole painting was the in thing to do.

I tried my hand at it — and wasn’t very good.

(Wasn’t good at crafty things back then and I’m not now. Sigh.)

However, I did something that was fairly simple for Christmas. Fairly.

I made a countdown to “Kiss-mas” for each of my kids.

Here’s what you need to make your own Kissmas countdown:

Wooden heart (one per child)
Acrylic paint
Paintbrush
Curling ribbon
Holiday ribbon
Hershey Kisses
Plastic wrap
Thumbtacks

Please don’t judge me by the slanting of the writing. Sigh.

Here’s how you make your countdown.

First, paint your heart.  I painted mine red. Of course you could use any color scheme that you want.

The one on the far left I painted to make it look plaid. I used green and red paint — and I really never liked the green color. Bleh! I should have re-painted it red and white. But I never got around to it — and I think it’s a wee bit too late for my son.  He’s a thirtysomething father of three and probably doesn’t care about his countdown to Kiss-mass.

The middle one, for our daughter, I tried to make like eyelet lace. It turned out pretty nice even if I do say so myself. The one on the left was for our  youngest son and is the simplest design with plain dots around the edge of the heart.

Next, make your ‘kiss’ countdown. Get a bag of Hershey candy kisses. Take a long piece of plastic wrap and place it on the counter. Place 24 kisses on the long side and roll the long edge over and over until you have a long ‘rope’ of kisses. Tie curling ribbon between the kisses to hold them in place. Use a thumbtack to tack the kisses to the bottom of the heart.

Cut a piece of holiday ribbon. Loop it and use a thumbtack to attach it to the top of the heart.

There! You’re finished! Kids cut off one kiss per day as they countdown the days until Kiss-mas.

I know this isn’t fancy or elegant. However, my kids liked it.

You know, you don’t have to use a heart shape if you don’t want. You could use a star. That would be a fun shape. Or, you could use whatever wooden Christmas shape that you can find at the hobby store.

Or, to make it really simple, you could just have a wide ribbon, tie a bow and hook your kisses to the bow. Young grandchildren would probably like this option the best.

Ho, ho,  ho! Have fun making this countdown with your grandchildren.

Happy holidays!