DIY Wooden Tree Advent Calendar

For the past two years my boyfriend and I had been using this advent calendar that I made. But because it was made out of cardboard boxes that had to be glued shut, and therefore torn open, it was time to replace it.
The size of the boxes was also a bit limiting when it came to buying things for each other to fill them, which is something I took into consideration when I started thinking of a new DIY advent calendar.

This is what I came up with.
A wooden tree with hooks to hang on numbered baubles. The baubles are stuck to 24 little gifts, kept in a box alongside, and when a gift is opened it's bauble is hung on the tree. So the fuller the tree, the closer we are to Christmas!

To make this advent calendar I got some thin lengths of wood and coloured them with wood stain so they would match some of the furniture in our living room.
I cut 6 pieces of wood in decending lengths for the branches of the tree, plus one long piece which would be the trunk.

Figuring out the sizes took some planning, especially since 24 doesn't easily work in a pyramid layout. So instead of the branches having 1, 2, 3, 4 etc baubles on them, mine go 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6.

I hammered little nails into the branches which would be the hooks for the baubles to hang on.

Then I glued the branches to the trunk using a strong epoxy glue. It wasn't until I took this photo that I realised I used two different brands of tubes, but they still worked when mixed together.

I also screwed an eye screw into the top of the trunk and attached some twine so that I could hang the tree on the wall.

I bought two packs of 20 mini baubles, ommitted the glittery ones, and numbered the rest using a white paint pen. I might re-do this at some point using number stickers to make it look a bit neater.

Then all that was left to do was wrap the 12 gifts I bought for my boyfriend, which I've been gathering for the past month, and attach the baubles. Then I gave him the other half of the baubles for him to do the same with the gifts he bought for me...yesterday. But what's good about this advent calendar is that you don't have to have all the gifts ready on December 1st as you can add them to the box at any time. So it gives people who have had a particularly busy November a bit of wiggle room.

I really love how this turned out and I hope we'll be using it for many years to come!

Home Made Advent Calendar

I've always wanted to make an advent calendar and pick out 24 little gifts to fill it. As this is the first Christmas living with my boyfriend he got to be the lucky recipient. Though it turns out finding 24 little gifts for a boy, that isn't just chocolate, is pretty tricky.

I went through several different options for making the calendar. I thought about hanging little packages on a string, using brown envelopes, stacking matchboxes. In the end I went with cereal variety boxes, which I found for £1 for a pack of 8.

I emptied the boxes (rice krispie cakes anyone?) and cut off the flaps from one end. I stuck the boxes together using a glue gun. Once all 24 boxes were in place I stuck card to the sides to hide the packaging.

I also thought through a few different versions for the windows on the calendar, but settled on simple card flaps that I glued to the bottom of each box. I used two different colours; maroon with a snowflake pattern and a shimmery pale gold. Completely coincidentally these colours matched the decorations my boyfriend has for his Christmas tree. 

I printed out the numbers on to stickers and used my circle paper punch to cut them out.

Then all I needed to do was fill the boxes, stick on the numbers and close the windows which had to be done by dabbing on a few spots of PVA glue on the edge of the boxes and holding down the card until it dried. Which was done on November 30th. I finished it just in time!

I won't show you what I put inside the boxes in case my boyfriend reads this, but I can tell you that so far he's received; tea bags, chocolate coins, a small pencil with a fun rubber, a Barney bear cake, a pencil sharpener that looks like a nose and a pair of Christmas pants which he wore that day.

If the calendar stays in one piece we're planning to use it again next year with him filling half the boxes for me and me filling the other half for him. 

Hand Print Tree Advent Calendar

At work/school I was asked to come up with an advent calender with the class of 4/5 year olds, and this is what we made.

The Christmas tree is made up of green hand prints with only the palms glued down so the fingers stick out like branches. Each child filled an A4 piece of paper with their hand prints and I had just enough to make the tree once I'd cut them out. Right at the last minute I had the idea to make the star on the top out of a yellow hand print, so I chose the boy with the biggest hands to do this special hand print.

The days of advent are represented by these paper baubles which are hung on shiny thread and stapled to the tree. Each day one of the bauble will be turned over to reveal a picture drawn by a child showing something to do with Christmas. There are pictures of snowmen, Father Christmas, a Christmas train carriage, and even a dinosaur. Because nothing says Christmas like a creepy looking dinosaur.