Why one guy sewed his own Advent calendar

This morning, kids are tearing into their store bought Advent calendars — but Andy Peterson's children are doing the countdown to Christmas differently with a homemade Advent their father made 12 years ago. 

At 29, Peterson sewed his own Advent calendar while commuting an hour to work every day in Toronto.

"It would have been lost time if he didn't decide to make a bit of the calendar everyday," said Peterson's wife, Alexandra on Metro Morning. "He sat there as a young 29-year-old sewing bits of an Advent calendar."

The calendar doesn't have doors, instead Peterson used Christmas-themed fabric to sew present and heart pockets, which the family of four filled annually. 

"We had a magic Christmas elf come and fill them every night," she recalled. 

Although her kids are 20 and 22 and living on their own, Peterson still hangs the Advent calendar. 

Everything from small toys to Gerber teething biscuits has come out of those pockets, Peterson said.

"What it was really about a family tradition that made looking forward to Christmas that much more fun."

'Reverse' Advent calendar

Peterson isn't the only one with a unique take on the Christmas tradition. 

This year Jackie Stothers is doing a "reverse" Advent calendar — she's putting treats in, instead of taking them out.

"Every day for the next 24 days someone in our house will add an item for the food bank," she said.

This is the first year she's done this type of Advent calendar. She got the idea from the United Church of Canada's Facebook page. 

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"There's lots of different ways you can do this," said Stothers. "We are a family that has quite a lot of resources available to us and at this time of year it's about the chocolates, and the Advent calendar, and the gift exchanges that seem to be going on everywhere around us and so we wanted to do something that makes us every day do something just little and easy for someone else."

Her calendar is a box the size of a photocopy paper box, which she's wrapped in colourful wrapping paper. It's sitting in her living room.

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"On Dec. 24 we'll walk the box around the corner to our local fire hall and donate the food to the food bank drive that's done there," 

Sounds of the Season is CBC Toronto's annual charity drive. Please visit our website for details on the Dec. 2 event and how you can support local food banks.