If you need some homemade Advent calendar inspiration then you’re definitely in the right place because I’m sharing 10 Homemade Advent Calendar Ideas with you today!
Like most families, we’ve had our fair share of shop-bought advent calendars over the years – we’ve had the usual chocolate calendars, a couple of Lego and Playmobil calendars and even a couple of beauty calendars and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Until the last couple of years, the kids have always loved jumping out of bed on a morning to open that day’s door and find out what’s in there waiting for them – even when it was just chocolate.
Now that they’re a bit older, they don’t have the same enthusiasm for their calendars (although they still absolutely insist on having something to open) so we’ve tried to be a bit more creative over the last couple of years.
I’ve seen a few people on social media asking for some homemade Advent calendar ideas over the last week or two so I thought I’d share a post with lots of different ideas in one place which meant asking some of my blogging friends for their help so below, you’ll find a round-up of lots of different homemade Advent calendar ideas to choose from.
Homemade Advent Calendar Ideas
The Alternative Advent Calendar
Our Alternative Advent Calendar is something we’ve done for the last few years although I don’t think we’ll be doing it this year as it’s a bit difficult to set time aside each day now where we’re all around at once. It’s basically an envelope for each day of Advent and each one has an activity inside it for us to do as a family that day – it used to be things like watch a Christmas film together, bake Christmas cookies for weekdays when time was more limited and on a weekend, I’d include things like days out or trips to the outdoor skating rink. I might try and keep it alive for the weekends when we have more time together if I can think of enough teen-friendly activities.
Jenni from The Bear and the Fox does something similar to me but hers looks so much prettier than mine does. 😉
A Christmas Book Advent
I can’t tell you how much I love this idea from Mother Geek – a Christmas book advent would mean basically wrapping up one book for each day of Advent! This sums up a lot of what Christmas is about to me because you get to watch your children open up their book each day and then you get the added bonus of reading the book with them, preferably sat around the Christmas tree with fairy lights twinkling.
Claire from The Ladybird’s Adventures does a Christmas Book Advent too but rather than wrapping all of the books, she has one cute Christmas bag which she reuses every night to pop the next day’s book in!
A Crafty Advent Calendar
The crafters among you are going to love this idea from Counting to ten! You fill 24 bags with random crafty bits and add a letter or a symbol to each bag to be decorated that day. By the end of Advent, you have a lovely handmade Happy Christmas banner sign to display!
Christmas treat bags
Jo from a Rose Tinted World made these super cute little treat bags that can be used year after year. You can fill them with random little bits and bobs that you know your child will love along with the odd chocolate treat as fillers. You could fill some with chocolates, some with treats and even add jokes or promises of activities in some of them.
Advent Santa Truck
Another fab idea came from Emma who bought a wooden advent Santa truck last year and filled each drawer with a note that had a bell attached for some extra festive-ness. Some notes would include a promise to do a Christmas activity, another would be to make a memory, a promise to visit particular places over the coming year and the other notes were for a lucky dip. The lucky dip being a cardboard box with shredded paper filled with fun gifts. You could even do this with just envelopes of the Christmas treat bags above if you don’t want to buy an Advent truck.
You could do something similar with hanging matchboxes which is one of the ideas over on All Things Christmas.
Jade from Raw Childhood does similar with some wooden advent calendars that she’s decorated herself although she adds in a cheeky 50p on a couple of days. 😉
Advent Stockings
Similar to the treat bags above, Charlotte made these cute little stockings for her son’s first Christmas. Everyone gets a treat each day from sensory baskets items, craft stuff and bath toys for the kids to coffee pods, games and chocolate for the grown-ups. I do love things like this where it’s almost a tradition in itself when you can re-use it year after year.
A Collectables Advent Calendar
This idea from Sim’s Life probably isn’t going to work out to be the cheapest option but if your children collect something then you could buy one for each day of advent (or a couple to intersperse with cheaper treats like chocolate). This one is a whole month’s worth of Itty Bittys but you could also do Lego mini-figures or anything else collectable.
A Calendar of Goodwill
This idea from Jo at Cup of Toast is such a lovely one that I think we should all do it with our whole family! It’s a list of things you can do to be kind throughout the month of December with the idea being that you do one a day. What a lovely, lovely idea!
Fairy Light Advent Calendar
This suer cute fairy light Advent Calendar from Thimble and Twig is the prettiest Advent Calendar in my list today! It’s fun to make and beautiful to look at with random envelopes and boxes filled with treats and promises of activities and fun.
Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar
And finally, the Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar that Jen does every year with her boys is one of my all-time favourites with some amazing activities suggested that will teach kids the value and importance of kindness as well as giving back to other people and the community in such a great way. The lazy side of me also loves that there’s a printable too so it’s minimal effort to set up. 😉
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