24 Days of Surprises: Our Favorite Advent Calendar Ideas
The holiday season is one of the most magical times of the year, especially for crafters. No other time of year has the events (custom-made invitations!), the gifts (personalized gift tags!), the cards (personalized Christmas cards!), and, of course, the decor of the holiday season.
One of our favorite crafts for Christmas is an advent calendar. We love that the advent calendar invites us to slow down, be present in the moment, and remember each day of the holiday season as its own gift. We’ve compiled our favorite ideas for the holiday to inspire you to create your own advent calendar, complete with inspiration and ideas.
5 DIY Advent Calendar Ideas
Regardless of your crafter skill level, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite DIY paper advent calendars to help inspire your project. Whether you are a paper crafting pro and want to test your skills with an advanced advent calendar, or you are just starting out on your crafting journey and need a simple but meaningful holiday craft, we have an advent calendar for you!
And don’t forget—whatever advent calendar ideas we offer, you can always customize them to your own family traditions! By augmenting your advent calendar supplies with patterned papers, fabric, ribbons, and other embellishments that reflect your own style, your Christmas countdown will be that much more meaningful to you and your family.
Open A Present Every Day!
This is one of our favorite ideas for families with young kids (and, of course, the young at heart!). Make an advent calendar using boxes like our Scalloped Gift Card boxes, the Book Treat Boxes featured in the image below, or any other boxes that might fit your style or design idea even better! Customize the advent box decorations with numbers and any other customizations that fit your holiday theme. Add tiny candies, gifts, notes, activity ideas, or even pictures in the boxes to bring a little more Christmas spirit to the season.
Another way to enjoy a daily “gift” is to wrap up a Christmas picture book to be wrapped and read each night. Start small if you need to, and build up your advent library each with a new book! This is a sweet way to slow down each day, especially with kids and grandkids of all ages.
How about this luxe gift box idea from the Stampin’ Up! archives? Even though the materials used to make these boxes have been retired, you can use them for inspiration. Mini gifts numbered and adorned with festive ribbon are the perfect way to unwrap something extra delicious each day leading up to Christmas.
One of the best parts of these gift-a-day advents is that they’re so easy to tailor to those participating. If you’ve got little kids, nearly anything will excite them—candy, mini figurines, tiny toys, and more! Got teens in the mix? Try adding a few more mature options, such as their favorite lip balm, trendy snacks, small family games, or even inexpensive jewelry. And for those households with just adults participating, the possibilities are endless—from coupons for a special holiday date to miniature puzzles to complete together, have fun with different ways to make the season a little more special.
Mini Christmas Village
Few traditions bring more magic than the Christmas village, but this fun paper craft spin on the “village” will delight your family. Use the Humble Home Bundle to create a sweet village of gingerbread house tags that include a daily clue, activity, prompt, or message to help countdown to Christmas.
For a clean but classic look, use the Pecan Pie Cardstock to create your houses, or try the wood grain texture paper in the Country Woods Designer Series Paper to add a more rustic flair. Add glitter, embellishments, and ribbon to make your village truly yours.
Photos And Memories: A Personalized Advent Calendar
An easy way to bring your loved ones joy during the holiday season is to bring back the joy of past Christmases with a custom photo advent calendar. You could also use images from the past year to revisit fond memories and events from the previous 11 months. Just choose 24 photos and use festive cardstock and patterned paper to frame the images. Punch a hole through the paper frame and hang them on your tree, across the mantel, or throughout the house, or place each in an envelope to be unwrapped each day.
RELATED: DIY Christmas Card Ideas to Show You Care
This could be a deeply personal advent that adds a nostalgic spin on counting down to Christmas. Use the Gold Foil Sheets to add subtle glam to the project without overwhelming it, or go all out and try the Textured Metallic paper to really amp up the holiday cheer.
Christmas Ornament Advent Calendar
Want an advent that doubles as Christmas tree decor? Use the Decorative Trees Bundle or the Snowy Scenes Suite to create ornament tags that can be hung on your Christmas tree. Add embellishments like this Adhesive-Backed Snowflake assortment, or for a classic Christmas look, try the Real Red & Gold Dotted Ribbon to accent your ornament tags.
Tight on space or already committed to a Christmas tree theme? Another option is to hang the ornament tags from twinkle lights, rope, or baker’s twine, depending on your personal style. This would make a special gift to send to a loved one who is far from home during the holidays and could use a little love and daily reminders of how much you miss them.
The Advent Calendar You Give Away
At Stampin’ Up!, we focus on giving throughout the year—it’s the foundation of our belief that what we create and craft is meant, first and foremost, to connect us with those around us. So what if you took that idea to the next level with a daily advent treat that was bundled and ready to giveaway? Like this example from the Stampin’ Up! archives—just fill a treat bag with something delicious, top with a paper tag and message and then go out into the world to brighten someone’s day.
Send it to school with your kiddo so they can give it to their teacher. Give it to the busy barista at your favorite coffee shop. Take it to work and leave it in your coworker’s cubicle to brighten their day. Now, that’s what we call spreading Christmas cheer!
Advent Calendar Filler Ideas
We touched on it lightly before, but let’s get into a few more ideas about how to fill these advent calendars with more than just physical gifts. There are so many opportunities to make these countdowns interactive and part of your family and friends’ collective holiday memories and fun! Plus, if you’re not buying things to fill your countdown with, it’s an extra opportunity to get crafty—and we’re always excited for more of that!
Small Handmade Gifts
Unique handmade items are one of our favorite advent calendar ideas. This could be anything in any medium really—we’re thinking of things like little clay figures, mini embroidery art, small soaps or bath bombs, beaded bracelets, tiny paintings, tree ornaments, handmade cards…you get the idea! Whatever you love to create, why not share it as part of the holiday countdown?
Acts of Kindness Cards
We could always use more kindness in the world, especially during the holiday season. Try tucking a small handmade card into each of your advent envelopes or boxes with an idea for how the recipient—or your entire family—can spread a little holiday cheer that day. In our experience, keeping it small and manageable makes it more fun and more meaningful! A few ideas, including shoveling a neighbor’s walkway, singing carols at a retirement home, de-icing strangers’ windshields, putting gift bows on all the lockers in your hall, and donating toys to a local shelter, might help you get started.
Festive Activity Prompts
This is a classic way to handle a Christmas countdown, but it definitely takes more planning ahead of time. Again, you don’t want your advent calendar ideas to become a burden, but rather a way to bring more light and connection into your holiday season. You could try a Christmas cookie bakeoff, a trip to the ice-skating rink, or a viewing of your favorite holiday film, complete with a hot chocolate bar!
12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar
We love all the unique DIY advent calendar ideas that will help make the most of the holiday season for your family and friends. But we can also appreciate the surprising fun that comes with not knowing exactly what an advent calendar holds—for you. After all, you deserve a little of the Christmas magic, too! That’s where the 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar from Stampin’ Up! comes into play.
With 12 different doors to open, every day is going to feel like Christmas with this pretty little advent calendar. Full of papercrafting tools, coordinated embellishments, a 24-piece (!) stamp set, designer papers, and ephemera—that has never been seen before—each day brings something special to add to your creator’s stash that you can use year-round. Try using a gift a day to enhance a personal daily ritual of creativity or savor the final day when all your new presents can be used together!
And while we’re very excited for you to enjoy an advent calendar of your very own, we also realize this could be a great gift for a crafty friend or child who loves to create. After all, spreading creativity can only bring more joy into the world!
How to Make Your DIY Advent Calendar Extra Special
Whether you go with a store bought advent calendar like the one from Stampin’ Up! or one of your own creation, your advent calendar can add that extra layer of charm, cheer, and personality to help make your holiday season bright. The calendars themselves are lovely and add vibrancy to the holiday, but what we love most of all is how advent calendars help make the season meaningful. Taking time to open an advent calendar every day through the busy season allows us to slow down and remember what is most important: our loved ones.
We love the idea of sending a simple advent calendar to a loved one and the connection that comes from knowing that they are opening a reminder of your love throughout the month. Another way to connect with advent calendars is to create meaningful tasks, traditions, or memories on each day. Some families like to add a random act of kindness for each day of Advent and focus on completing it, while others like to add their traditions to Advent to ensure each tradition happens throughout the season.
Others might find peace in their holiday by adding meaningful quotes, stories, or messages for each day of the advent. Regardless of how you use your advent calendar, remember that you are connected to a community of fellow crafters who also love to thoughtfully prepare for holidays through crafting. At the heart of every craft is love, and during the holiday season, we can’t think of anything sweeter. Find a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator who can help you create an advent calendar you will love today and get started on your DIY advent calendar.