This 'n That Thursdays: An Advent Tea Tin

One of the Christmas gifts I  received was this Harney & Sons Nutcracker Blend Tea Tin ($16.95 for 30 sachets).  I enjoy the flavor of the tea sachets in the tin, but I just love the cute design of the tin itself.  I plan to keep this tin after the tea is gone, and I know exactly how I will be using it.  Advent calendars with little gift slots for each of the 24 days before Christmas seem to be very popular right now.  I have been looking for one that includes a tea bag for each day, but I only like black or white tea and all of the advent tea calendars that I have found include green, rooibos, and/or herbal teas in the collection.  You can also find empty advent calendars to fill yourself, but the nicest ones are expensive and they tend to be rather large, which means yet another decorative item that has to be stored somewhere until next Christmas.

When I got this cute nutcracker tin, it occurred to me that I could use it as a sort of advent calendar.  It has plenty of room for 24 tea bags, and since I drink tea at least once every day I always have plenty of tea bags on hand.  If I start now saving one or two foil-wrapped tea bags from every box I open, it will not take me long to collect 24 of them.  I tend to switch the types and flavors of tea I drink throughout the year, so I am pretty sure I can have 24 different types of black tea by the time we reach the month of December.  Best of all, this compact tea tin is much easier to store than a bulky advent calendar, and I can reuse it year after year.  I am really looking forward to putting this advent tea tin together as the year progresses, and can't wait to start using it when December 1st finally arrives!