DIY Advent Calendar That's Not Just for Kids!
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Having hardly recovered from the Thanksgiving food coma and the blur of black Friday and cyber Monday, full panic mode is now on as the kids are writing letters to Santa and asking about Advent Calendars as the countdown to the big event.
One could easily pick one up at IKEA or on Amazon, but nothing jazzes up that sense of anticipation more than making one at home. It’s not only exciting and engaging as a wonderful craft project, but also much more fun too - for parents a great way to be environmentally friendly (think repurpose or recycle) and for kids a time to express themselves with items close to hand. Use newspapers, store paper bags from Trader Jo’s and Whole Foods, old Holiday cards, or blank note cards (whether used or not) + they’ll be perfect for this project. Other essentials include tape, scissors, a hole puncher, a sharpie and twine (ribbon or some sort of a string).
A folded card measuring 3.5 x5 in (or a sheet of paper measuring 7x10 in) will make a handsome box that will comfortably fit a little treasure.
Start with preparing and folding paper. I had a set of 24 blank notecards at home (similar to these ones) and they were super easy to work with. I numbered them and taped 2 sides in all 24 of them first, leaving the 3rd side open for filling, a kind of simple envelope. Filled them up with all the treasures I could think up and then created a 3D triangular box by pushing the corners together to meet. Once filled, I taped up the remaining opening, punched a hole, fed a sting through and attached the lot by tying the other end of the string to a small branch (a simple clothes hanger will do the job just as well). When you are short on time or patience (like I was this time around), you could omit the last step with a sting and instead just arrange them on a tray. You could watch a video tutorial here.
Once I got all the boxes ready to be filled, I and made a list of items destined for each box. This year each contained a little holiday ornament for the girls to decorate their personal mini tree with, a handful of candied nuts (or any other small sweets), an occasional dollar bill wrapped around a cinnamon stick and tied with a string, a rare lip balm stick or a sparkly nail polish, a little kawaii eraser or a temporary tattoo; and most importantly a coupon for either a winter activity or getting out of chores. Children really love the idea of having their own countdown by adding ornaments to a tree, but the coupons are really what they look forward to the most.
Here are some coupon ideas that were big hits for our girls (I simply wrote them up on blank gift tags):
Make mini wreaths with mama (must make sure to have all of the supplies and ingredients before letting them ‘cash’ this one in)
Bake cookies of choice
Make ‘hot chocolate station’
Choose a movie to watch for a family night
Enjoy an extra 30 min of reading time before bed
Choose and decorate a christmas tree
Visit a bakery/cafe of choice for an ‘afternoon tea’/brunch date
Choose a game to play for family fun time
Decorate a gingerbread house
Make fun ornaments to decorate their room with
Make paper snowflakes
Look under your bed (where a little present or the first clue to a scavenger hunt is be hidden)
Decorate gingerbread or sugar cookies
Visit a bookstore
Choose a restaurant or a favorite meal to be cooked for dinner
Visit a nail salon
Go for a walk/drive to see the holiday lights
Spend the day in your PJ’s
No need to make beds today (elves will help!)
Cinema visit
Foot massage (our girls are big funs)
Hope this helps and if you give it a go please tag me so that I could see what you create! Did you have an advent calendar growing up?
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