I’ve always had mixed feelings about advent calendars: on the one hand it is very exciting to open a little package every single day and so to get prepared for the holidays, but on the other hand I absolutely hate useless junk – and collecting 24 useful, tiny objects as present is one hell of a challenge. I’ve also been thinking about the fact that the greatest present these days is time. Time for yourself, time to look inside, which is even more elusive during the run-up time to Christmas than other times of the year. This is the reason I chose to create an advent calendar this year in which I give myself 15 minutes every single day. 15 minutes of free creating, without the pressure, without expectations.

A doodle for a day

The original idea comes from the youtube channel Sea Lemon: the creator of the channel, Jennifer holds monthly doodle challenges every month, in which she divides a piece of paper into 30/31 sections and draws something in the little squares every day. Several thousand people have joined these doodle challenges, perhaps not without reason: painting on so small a surface doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes, while your creativity slowly blossoms, and you get rid of your daily amount of stress – some of it at least.

Alternative calendar or December art challenge

So, after the success of the repeat pattern challenge this summer I decided to take Jennifer’s thought further and turn it into an advent calendar. I divided a piece of paper into 24 sections, so I can draw a Christmas or winter themed doodle every single day. In the end the A4 size paper turned out to be too small (I cannot work in stamp-size, even if I like working small), so the calendar is now on 2 pages with 12 little squares, each with its own topic: penguin, snowman, etc.

How will I have the time for it?!

As a matter of fact, I’m a little panicky at this point. After the summer challenge, drawing for 24 days in a row will definitely not be easy – especially during this super-busy time, but still, I’m determined to get going with it. This is neither about making breathtakingly pretty images (even though I’ll do my best to achieve it), nor is it a practicing a certain style. It’s more about trying to build up the habit of creating every day, and to learn not to make such a fuss over starting. (Starting is always the most difficult part of creating). It takes only 10 minutes a day.

Join me!

You like the idea? Join me in the challenge! If you don’t want to draw your own calendar and figure out topics for yourself, just look into my resource library: the blank template for the advent calendar is available there as well as loads of other stuff. To access the content library you need to sign up for my newsletter, or if you’ve already signed up, look for the password in the latest newsletter. If you join me, please share your work with the hashtag #imeldagreensartchallenge over Instagram or Facebook, or/and join us at the Facebook event.

I have no idea whether I can keep up with the pace of all this, but if not, I’m not going to beat myself up. I can simply say: well, this didn’t work this December. And if it does, then my creative muscles will have become all the stronger. Do you wanna do this creative workout together?