Last year I had an advent calendar for the first time. It was a fun thing we got with a different type of tea each day. So, this year, I’ve decided I wanted to make my advent calendar. As I loved the idea and how it turned out, I thought it’s best to share how I’ve made it, so you can make your own advent calendar too.
I had a different idea to start with, but I had to change it, and made it easier too. I think even if you already have a calendar prepared, making another one, for the whole family will be worth the effort. You don’t even have to be very crafty to make your own advent calendar.
This is what I used to make the calendar. As you can see, I made three sheets with different activities, foods, and drinks. There are 24 “tasks” on each sheet. I also used cute green paper clips and a shop bought bunting set. As I said, I planned to use some pouches, but the numbers I had would not stick to those. So, I made my life easier by getting a cheap bunting set from a local supermarket. The bunting can be made with colourful cardboard, cut in shapes, by hand or with a big puncher.
What you can’t see in the pictures are the numbers, scissors, cutting mat and cutter.
To make the tasks, I’ve used an excel worksheet. There are three types of tasks (I have no idea how to call them otherwise, so bear with me): food, drink, and activities.
For food, I picked: Chocolate, Mince pie, Biscuit, Truffles, and Cupcakes.
When it comes to drinks, I forgot mulled wine, so this might be a nudge to make when I fancy. On the sheet, I had: Christmas cocktail, Hot chocolate, and Winter tea. I made only 12 for drinks and the other 12 were Christmas music and Sing carols (more like listening, though).
The last are the activities. I picked games I had at home, like: Timeline, Staccups, Domino, Monopoly, Dobble, Scrabble, Poker, Rummy, and Jenga. I linked to the games I’ve blogged about before.
I’ve decorated the paper cards with royalty free Christmas clip art I found online. All three are reindeer because they look fun. If you don’t have a printer, you can write the paper cards by hand.
Next step is to put on the days on the cardboard cards. I had a sort of stickers. Again, if you don’t have those, just write with a glittery pen, it will look amazing.
I cut the paper cards with the tasks and put them in three piles. I flipped them and shuffled them, so I don’t even know which ones are which. It will be a surprise for me too. That is the fun part.
Another option is to fold them and put them in three small jars, picking one each day. I imagine that would be nice with kids, to let them draw the “winning” cards.
Using the clips, attach the paper cards onto the big cardboard cards.
After you finish, they are ready to go on a string. It’s that easy to make your own advent calendar. I enjoyed it so much making it and it will be personal and fun for us.
Do you plan to make your own advent calendar or do you prefer buying one?
What a fabulous idea which would be fun to do
Bit late to do this year – already have a shop bought one
Certainly give it a go next year
This is such a lovely and cute idea!!! I would do this if I had a family! I like the innocence, simplicity and lack of materialism of it!