It’s almost December and I can’t wait! I love the Christmas season. It is my favorite time of year. Everyone is happy and friendly. I love the music, the decorations and let’s not forget the food!
This year I decided to make an advent calendar for our family. I wanted it to be filled with activities we could do together. I also wanted it to serve as a cute decoration in our family room. I had the perfect spot – my son’s magnet board. I made the magnet board a few years ago and I will have to give instructions on how to make that another day, but you can really pick any spot or blank wall in your house for this homemade Advent Calendar that’s full of family advent calendar ideas.
You will only need a few items:
– Dowel rod
– Garland long enough to cover dowel rod. I bought one with lights
– Bows, holly berries and any other items you wish to decorate your garland with.
– Small paper gift bags
– Gift tags, I bought some that were stickers so it stuck right on the paper bag.
– String or yarn
– Small twigs (found a small branch in our yard and my son helped by breaking it into 3” pieces)
– Marker and hole punch
– Paper, I used green card stock. Cut into 25 pieces
I was happy to only have to buy a few of these items, I had many of them on hand left over from other projects. The gift bags and gift tags were less than $2 at my local craft store and I found the garland on sale for $10. Everything else I already had. A good deal for a month’s worth of fun and a cute decoration!
I chose the activities based on things we do every year as well as some new ones I am excited my son will be able to do for the first time. I sprinkled in a few “easy” days because while I try to make every day special, I still need to be reasonable. My suggestion is to look at your calendar and plan the activities so that when you make your advent calendar you can strategically pick which activity happens each day.
Advent Calendar Ideas
- See Santa
- Build gingerbread house
- Decorate the small tree in my son’s room
- Go ice skating
- Have hot chocolate. I have a homemade recipe I found on Pinterest that is delicious!
- Read a Christmas book
- Kiss under the Mistletoe
- Color a Christmas picture
- Make a Christmas card for my parents
- Make a Christmas Card for my in-laws
- Make a Christmas Ornament
- Donate a toy (or 5!)
- Write a letter to Santa
- Have a picnic by the Christmas Tree
- Have a snowball fight (I bought a bag of cotton balls in case there isn’t snow that day)
- Make a Christmas card for Daddy
- Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast
- Make reindeer food (oatmeal & glitter to sprinkle in the yard on Christmas Eve)
- Read the Christmas story from the Bible
- Make cookies
- Go look at Christmas lights
- Sing Christmas carols
- Watch a Christmas movie
- Buy a gift for a child in need
- Write a wish for our family that we hope comes true this year and put it on the tree.
To assemble the advent calendar I stuck one gift tag to each bag and wrote 1-25 respectively on each of the 25 bags. I then put one activity in each bag, making sure that I wrote each activity in my planner so that we are actually able to do the activity on the day he opens it. I want it to be fun opening the bag to read ‘go ice skating’ and then actually go that day. I also want to make sure on the day we are making cookies that I have the ingredients ready to make them.
Next fold over the bag and punch a hole in the fold. I put a piece of string through the hole and tied a small stick to the string. This is for two reasons: It will look cute AND the bag won’t rip like it would if I just tied the string through the hole.
Tie each string to the dowel rod at varying heights and out of order. This way my son will have to find the number each day, this is good practice for him and makes it more fun as well. Hang the dowel rod. As I mentioned, I hung ours on the magnet board. I thought it looked cute since ours is red and it’s a good spot in our family room.
Attach the garland to the dowel rod. I used left over ribbon from another project. It looked cute and held the garland in place. I added a few holly berries to give it a pop of red against the greenery and the lights.
Most of my projects I do with my son. I had him help this time as well but I kept the activities a surprise. He can’t wait to open them and has been doing a count down the last week waiting for December 1st. Your little one can help with punching the holes, finding the stick and breaking it into pieces. If they are writing this is perfect for them to write the numbers and tying the strings is good for fine motor skills too. I love how much fun we had making this and I can’t wait to actually do a fun activity every day in December as well! Share a picture of your advent calendar ideas and any activities your family loves to do during the holidays. Happy Crafting and Merry Christmas!
For more craft & DIY ideas, click here. And to see how to decorate on a budget, click here.
Ohh what a beautiful christmas calendar and what a fun idea to make activities for the family instead stuff!
This gives me ideas for our family calendar!
Yes! I am so doing this this year. I’ll even have the boy help me. I just love Christmas activities.
This is a great project, not only for Christmas time, but also for any family vacation we have. I think about our next summer vacation, and it’s perfect to remember cool activities to do and not always do the same thing over and over again.
We love our advent calendar, but I was recently thinking of getting new one. I love the way you’ve created yours.
Great way to usher in the holiday season. It is beautiful and functional. I don’t know where I would put one of these but I need to be reminded of to dos.
What a cute project! I never thought to do something like this. I don’t really care for the chocolate calenders I usually get.
This is super cute and I cannot wait to share it! I love having something like this to look forward to in the season!
Great ideas for creating advent calendars, and activities for the whole family. Time well spent together!
What a fabulous idea! We loved opening each box of our advent calendars as kids and this activity spin on the classic would be so much fun!
Oh my goodness this is such a cute and adorable Christmas project! It turned out beautifully!!
Love this idea! So much better than just doing candy.
LOVE this idea! Although I know my girls will still want the one with the chocolates, lol.
I have so been wanting to make one of these! Yours looks so good! Thanks so much, gonna use this for sure!
What a fun idea. I love the idea of a homemade advent calendar. It would be cool to have everyone do a few days so it’s a surprise for more than just the kids.
This is such a great idea! I think my daughter would really enjoy making this with me.
This looks like such a simple yet fun idea. I have been thinking about doing an advent calendar this year with my kids.
I really like this creative idea. I’m going to try make this for the coming holiday. Great list idea. Thanks!
LOVE LOVE LVOE this idea. It is so awesome. This is such fun project to do as a family and a great way to get everyone involved.
I love this!! We do a 25 days of kindness countdown at my house. I’m going to “borrow” some of the ideas from your list!
Such a nice way of celebrating the holiday season. I loved the idea of advent calendar alot.
This turned out so cute! Love that you were able to DIY it and make something for your family to enjoy during the holiday season.
This is such a beautiful idea! I love filling each day for an activity to do together or for others. This could be a great way to teach my littles what the season is truly about!
I love this! I like activities, instead of things… and the range you have sounds just right. And hunting for the right day was always half the fun!
This is so pretty! I’d love to do something like this for our family now that our youngest is a little older and excited for everything holidays!
This looks like such a great idea, and so cute too! Perfect to do it with kids.
This is soooo adorable! I bet kids would love this and would be all over it!
I love how beautiful this looks and so dreamy. The activity seems really simple too for kids to join in while making it. I am so looking forward to christmas.
This is so cute and so fun! I love that it’s Christmas decor yet a fun planning tool for the whole family.
Hannah Rooks
http://www.therookiewife.com
This is such a cute idea and great way to add a personal touch to the season. My kids would love to help create one.
Looks like agreat way to have something special to do for every day as the holidays approach. I would have loved this when my kids were younger but yours is so nice.
I love the idea of an Advent Calendar filled with special things to do as a family. It sure beats one filled with candy. I love this idea.
I love advent calendars. I’ve been using them since the kids were babies. I think they’re a fun way to increase the Christmas spirit. Now I can add in some fun activities, too!
Advent calendars seem to be making a come back in last few years. There some beautiful ones to very simple ones to enjoy
I am now googling advent calendar ideas because I AM SOOOO getting one for my husband!!! He loves gifts, so getting one every day would make him soooooo excited!
Totally pinning this! What an easy way to create an advent calendar. Thanks girl!
Love your calendar! This would be so much fun to do this year with my family.
This is so cute! I have never done an Advent calendar with my girls, but I can totally make this for us this year.
This is so creative! I wish I had this creative ability to just think of stuff like this. The since I am not as creative as some I will take post like this use them in my home LOL. This is wonderful.
Advent is one of our favorite times as we prepare for Christmas. My kids have been counting down the days since we start our Advent calendar on December 1st. Yours is simply lovely, and I know that you’re going to use it to create some wonderful family memories.
I love this idea! It’s simple and it creates more memories than a moldy chocolate store bought one! I am going to try this!
Cute advent calendar ideas. We picked up a few Advent calendars over the weekend and I can’t wait for the weekend so the kids can open up window #1
What a beautiful advent calendar! I am typically lazy and just get the chocolate filled ones from Trader Joe’s!
That’s a lovely advent calendar. I did a similar one last year for my husband. It was a lot of fun.
This is too cute! I have never made my own before. I usually just buy the ones with chocolate in them!
How fun is this!!! I have always wanted to make an advent calendar for my girls. I never thought to make our own!
So creative!!! Giving me inspiration. Love your ideas & craftiness.
This is such a cute advent calendar. I would have never guessed this one was homemade!
Wow! What a great idea. I think I would also have to do the same. Hope you don’t mind if I create my own version for my son. 🙂
My youngest is currently obsessed with her new advent calendar. I love the idea of creating one yourself. I’ll have to try this next year.
24 is my favorite. Teaching to them that it’s not about what they’ll get but mostly about what they can do for others.
What a fun project! I am going to try #15. Thanks for the idea!
How wonderful for the holiday! A great tradition, too! My family is doing a reverse advent calendar — collect one non-perishable food item each day, and at the end, donate the collection!
I really love this idea. Even though my son is a teenager and my daughter is all grown up and no longer living with us I will still like to do this.
This is so cute and can be made to match anyone’s decor! I love that you have a good mixture of activities from serving others to just spending time together!
I love this ideas. An Advent Calendar with 25 family activities – this is genius! It will be fun to make it and to do the planned activities!
This is such an amazing idea! Would love to try this with my family!
I’ve never made my own, but it would be fun to have something other than just chocolate. What a neat idea!
This is such a great idea! I’ll have to look at doing this next year! We already have one for this year.
This is SUCH a great idea. I just love how cute it turned out, what a darling advent calendar with great content!
Wowzers this is so beautiful, I would like to give this next week!
Every year I say I’ll do an advent calendar, and every year the season creeps up on me. Perhaps I should make one now for next year so I have no excuse. LOL!
Wow I absolutely love this!! The 25 ideas are so helpful! Thanks so much for sharing
An advent calendar is a wonderful idea! I used to get the one that’s filled with chocolates as a kid and loved it 🙂
Cute! Currently, I am looking for one that has some sort of devotional element to help us teach our kids about Christmas!