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4 Easy to Make Advent Calendars

As traditional as Christmas cake, an advent calendar is a fun way to build anticipation leading up to the festive season and we show you some quick and easy advent calendar ideas.

12/12/2022

 

 

 

 

Amp up the anticipation to the arrival of Christmas by making your very own family advent calendar. The kids will love getting up in the morning over school holidays to countdown the days until Christmas and each day of the calendar can conceal a different treat or surprise. We pulled together some of the easiest ideas for making an advent calendar and most won't cost you that much to make. Plus, there is always the opportunity to substitute items with something different.

 

 

 

 

View the video below for step-by-step instructions on how to make a brown paper bag for your advent calendar.

 

 

 

 

1. Brown paper bags

Small brown paper bags are inexpensive, or you can buy a roll of brown paper and make your own paper bags for this advent calendar project (shown above). Print out or hand draw numbered tags for each of the bags and then fill them with a special treat. I find most of my crafty supplies (the inexpensive kind) at PNA or The Crazy Store and you may also pick up a few other ideas for festive decorations while you're in there!

 

 

 

 

 

2. Gift tags

Buy them or make them, this is probably the easiest project of the lot. Wrap a piece of soft board with fabric - any fabric, and then make up numbered tags. You can decorate these with sprigs of greenery, colourful berries from the garden, or old decorations. The one shown above is more for decoration than anything else, but you can always hang a little gift in place of decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Fabric bags

Repurpose a garden trellis with Rust-Oleum spray paint for this advent calendar. Make up little muslin bags, each numbered and filled with goodies and then hang these onto the trellis. If you don't have a piece of garden trellis lying around that you can use, purchase a piece of soft board from Builders and cover this with fabric. Layout the trellis with ribbon or tape and it will work just as well!

 

 

 

 

Even if you don't have a sewing machine, it is easy enough to hand stitch small bags using scrap fabric and then all you need is to number the bags and find something to mount them onto. Think about things you might already have in your home, things such as a baking sheet, wire grill, or anything else that can be used to hang your advent calendar.

 

 

Want to make your own fabric bags? Follow these instructions for hand-sewn fabric bags you can make with fabric scraps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Printables

Every year, a new selection of printable advent calendars comes up and I say thanks to these gals for their kindness and talent. Why fork out money when all you need is a colour printer? The printable advent calendar shown above is by skiptomylou.org and you can visit the site to download for yourself.

 

 

 

 

If you prefer a more interactive calendar, I love the one above by aliceandlois.com. These cute this card boxes can be filled with treat or goodies and the kids will love opening one up each day for the countdown to Christmas.

 

 

You can watch the video below to see how easy it is to make these little cardboard boxes using colourful paper or card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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