DIY Advent calendar

My daughter asks for an Advent calendar every year. I could buy her one in the shops, but she wants something home-made, filled not only with chocolate, but different kinds of sweets and small surprises. In this post, I’ll show you what I’ve made so far.

I won’t lie: I started off with store-bought advent calendars. My daughter found them exciting, but the excitement quickly wore off as finding the same piece of chocolate every day wasn’t a big deal. Three years ago, I decided to get creative and make my very first calendar.

I decided to include my daughter, so I printed some Christmas-themed labels and asked her to colour them. Then, while she was away on visitation day, I filled 24 brown paper bags with sweets and small presents and closed them with clothes pegs. I put all the bags in a plastic container, making sure to mix up the order of the days, so my daughter had to look for the correct day every morning when it was time to open a bag.

The following year, I want to do something else. In hindsight, it was a good idea, and I would never make this type again. I took a clothes hanger and hung paper bags on it with gold-coloured embroidery thread. It looked cute, but it was a nightmare to open and close the door of her room because the bags were moving around.

Last year, I found The One. My daughter liked this type so much that she wanted me to keep it, store it in a safe place and use it again this year. I ordered 24 green paper cups from Aliexpress, got a few sheets of green tissue paper from the Chinese store nearby and used some leftover wrapping paper from the year before. I took a large piece of cardboard, covered it with green craft paper and used a hot glue gun to adhere the paper cups in a Christmas tree shape with the opening facing me. I cut 6 squares from the gold wrapping paper and 18 squares from the green tissue paper, filled the cups with surprises and secured the paper squares in place with rubber bands. I added a number sticker to each of them, and as a finishing touch, I cut a star shape out of some white glitter paper and glued it on top of the “tree”. The opening of the cups was the best part because my daughter didn’t remove the rubber bands, but stuck her finger into the paper and ripped it open. This year, I have to cut new paper squares, but most of the work has been done.

Which one is your favourite?