DIY advent calendar

Just a few more days and then we can officially start counting down to Christmas. Last year my little man got a standard advent calendar in his shoe. You know those cardboard things with chocolates inside.

Great fun of course but this year I wanted something different

 

The Action advent calendar is still in use as a saint countdown calendar so I had to come up with something else. I gathered some wood in the woods and folded lots of papers to make an advent calendar.

DIY advent calendar

I got the idea to make an advent calendar with boxes. In each box you can put an activity or a treat. This only meant that I had to find a pattern to easily make 24 boxes.

A quick search on the internet led me to a treat blog with a tutorial on youtube.

This tutorial shows how to fold a box without cutting or gluing. After a little practice I got the hang of folding and got to work.

What you need?

• Squarepaper
• 4 branches
• String or ribbon
• straws
• scissors
• Paper with numbers or stickers
• Something tasty to put inside or assignments

We start the countdown on December 1st. Until Christmas the little man can open a box every day. So I make 24 boxes.

I use square paper from a Christmas block from Action.

This way I have all the boxes in the same colors, so it becomes one unit. I follow the tutorial in the link I gave above and fold 24 boxes. When all the boxes are folded make a hole in each one.

Do this on the side. Cut strings or ribbons of about 12 cm and put them through the hole.

To keep the string in place I tied a piece of straw to it. This way the string can't shoot through the hole. As you can see in the picture below.

To finish the boxes you stick a number on each box. The date of the day the box can be opened. I chose a different font in Word for each figure and then printed it out.

This way the figures look more playful.
Now divide the boxes across 4 branches. Make sure the branches are all the same length. Measure the width of 6 boxes in a row, this is the minimum length your branch should be.

Then tie a piece of string or ribbon to the top branch, long enough to hang it wherever you like. Now tie the first 6 boxes to the top branch. Then tie a string on each side of the branch and hang the next branch on it.

Continue until you have 4 branches hanging with 6 boxes on each branch.

Your advent calendar is ready! Now all you have to do is fill it. I filled the boxes with activities and a nice chocolate here and there.

This way every day is a surprise what's in the box.

Do you already have an advent calendar? What to put inside?

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