Fun and Practical DIY Christmas Advent Calendar with FREE PRINTABLES

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.” – Andy Warhol

This is no different for the most anticipated season of the whole year – CHRISTMAS.

The (Filipino) culture I grew up with enjoys the thrill of a long Christmas wait and the coming of the festive celebration. 

The excitement of this Christmas season is for all the children and the young at heart in every one of us.

As Christians, this anticipation leading up to Christmas Day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ is called “Advent”.

It is a great way to teach our kids the essence of Christmas celebrations and traditions.

In this blog post, I will be sharing with you an easy-to-make DIY that is a fun and practical Christmas Advent Calendar you can make for your kids that will serve as one of your Christmas decorations at home too.

But before we do that, let’s strike off some basics.

What is Advent?

Advent originated from the Latin word adventus which means “arrival” or “coming”.  It is the religious period of Christian preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. For the religious groups that celebrate advent, it is the period of four Sundays or weeks before Christmas day and it marks the beginning of the liturgical or church year.

What is Advent Calendar?

The advent calendar is a special chart used to help count the days to December 25  which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It usually has 24 days that come in the form of doors or boxes to open each day to reveal pictures or surprises befitting to the season.

Nowadays, advent calendars come in different forms, shapes, and sizes filled with loads of awesome treats which will feed the curiosities of those who will use them.

Ok, are you now ready with our DIY?

Fun and Practical DIY Advent Calendar

While our kids are young, I take the opportunity to make our Christmas countdown as exciting as possible. But this usually will depend on the budget and the time I have on hand.

The usual advent calendar I buy from the shops are the ones with little chocolate treats hiding behind the door of each number from 1 to 24.  The kids open the number in sequence from the first until the 24th of December. It’s a cool way to set the scene leading to the main celebration. Then come Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, they will get their main Christmas presents from us and Santa Claus.

Though most kids enjoy just the sweet chocolate treats in those chocolate advent calendars but as they grow older they may find it a little less exciting.

For that reason, I thought of making a fun and yet practical advent calendar that can spark my kids’ interests and can also be functional for me during this Christmas season. And I hope you will find it helpful with your advent calendar ideas at home too.

This fun and practical DIY Christmas Advent Calendar will surely make your countdown with your children more engaging.

I combined both my kids’ interests.  My buddy loves riddles whilst my missy enjoys fun writing and coloring activities.

And what is cool about this is it serves another purpose as Christmas decorations too!

Materials You’ll Need:

As usual with any of our DIY crafts, please make sure to use what you already have before you buy any.

• 24 x Loot bags of your choice – I used the Hessian Loot Bags from Kmart or you can also get them from here
• Christmas riddles – Free printables Christmas Advent Riddles

• Small activity books as additional gifts – I used the Lego Advent Calendar
• Kids’ treats – chocolates, lollies, candies of your choice
• Cardboard or Cardstock – I used the Kraft Cardstock from Kmart or you can also get a readily shaped cardstock from here
• Blu tack
• Pen of your choice – I used Uni Liquid Chalk Marker 

How to Make:

1. Prepare the loot bags and number them from 1 to 24.

Since I will be using them as Christmas tree decor, I opted to cut the cardstock into a star shape using my Cricut machine but please feel free to use whatever shapes or cards you like.  You can either print the numbers using your printer, cut the numbers using whatever tools you may have, or write them using whatever pen you got. Freel free to put your own creative touches to it. I attached the numbered cardstock using blu tack.

2. Prepare all your goodies to insert in the bags.

As I have 2 kids, I included two sets of goodies – riddle and activity packs (including sweet treats). You can add as many or as few packs as you want depending on the number of kids you have and what their interests are.

3. Download, print, and cut this printable Christmas Advent Riddles.

I have not numbered the riddles on purpose. So you’ll have the freedom of which day you wish to put them in.

You can get more Christmas riddle ideas here.

4. Insert the goodies in the bag.

5. Tie the bags and accentuate (if you still wish to).

6. Hang the bags on the tree or wherever you wish to display them as Christmas decorations.

That’s it! You have made a fun and practical Christmas advent calendar that is not just a sweet treat but an entertaining brain activity for your witty little people as well.

And what I like about this advent calendar idea is I can reuse part of this for next year and the coming year’s Christmas countdown until the kids’ are not into this advent countdown anymore.

Happy Christmas DIYing my dear homeys!

Ann

I am a busy mummy of 2 and a wifey to one. I am very careful when it comes to the needs of my family and home. I am particularly lazy to look for things and thoroughly crazy to do everything that’s why I am thankful for organizing. I am a certified meticulous when it comes to anything that involves effort, time, and money at home and beyond our home. In my spare time (if I am lucky), I engrossed myself reading, experimenting in the kitchen, exploring my tiny little garden, learning and saving from DIYs.