Nature inspired DIY Christmas Advent Calendar
Ho ho ho! I know it's only November, but Christmas is right around the corner and I have been dreaming of making some seriously cute kid friendly DIYs this year - welcome to our Christmas DIY series! The first project in this series is our nature inspired Christmas Advent Calendar for kids.
Dusty was one at Christmas last year, so he wasn’t big enough to really understand what an advent calendar is. But now he’s a big two year old and fully speaking, playing and generally causing a ruckus at home. So, the time is right and we can’t wait to show him this advent calendar we made for him on the 1st of December.
This project is totally inspired by the outdoors, and we used a branch reclaimed from a native Grevillia we sadly had to dig out from our back garden a few weeks ago, as well materials we already had at home from our wedding and Dusty’s 2nd birthday party. Read on for the steps!
Materials
Long strong stick
2m rope
Ribbon - in your colour of choice
Mini pegs (most craft stores have these)
Small kraft paper bags
Paint brush
Paint – in your colour of choice
3M clear hook
Steps
Put a 3M hook on a wall where you want to hand the advent calendar. Do this first, so by the time you have finished the project, it’ll be safe to hang the calendar on the hook without it falling off the wall.
Fold down the top of 25 small kraft paper bags.
Paint the numbers 1 to 25 on the kraft paper bags. If you’d like, use a pencil to outline the numbers first then paint over this so the numbers are all (roughly) the same size. I didn’t do this but had to throw out a couple of bags along the way.
Whilst the paint is drying, equally measure and cut 25 pieces of ribbon. The ribbon we cut was approximately 30cm long. The ribbon can be as long or short as you like.
In equal spaces, double knot your ribbon onto the stick. Then cut off the excess ribbon. A little tip - I twisted the knot around the stick so the knots were all underneath (the stick). This little trick made the ribbons look really lovely and neat.
Place your daily gift into each bag. We used a mixture of love notes, wrapped lollies and chocolate, and toys (i.e. cars). For Christmas Day, we are letting him know we are going to Disneyland in Los Angeles next year! Lucky kid…
Tie your rope onto both ends of the stick and hang over the hook.
Using the mini pegs, clip the bags onto the ribbon.
And that’s it! We hope you and your littles love this kid friendly advent calendar, and have a lovely time celebrating Christmas in December.
