This year, it was on my to-do list to create a DIY house advent calendar for the kids. I initially planned to cut out house shapes out of cardboard boxes, decorate them as little houses, and have a beautiful wall advent calendar wall on display in our foyer- so the kids can see it first thing each morning as they countdown to Christmas.
Well, life got busy with 6 kids, including a 10 month old that doesn’t love sleep as much as mom does, and my craftiness was put on hold.
Until! Until I realized there was a super easy way to make a DIY house advent calendar. Almost too easy. And basically FREE! Free? Yup. Well, if you don’t count the cost of your grocery bill… You’ll see what I mean in a bit.
Let’s dive into the details!
*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions and recommendations are my own.
What Is An Advent Calendar?
I love the nostalgic tradition of an Advent calendar, especially for kids. I still remember being so excited as a child to open a tiny little box each day in December leading up to Christmas, hoping a little treat would be inside. Even if there isn’t a treat, it’s just so fun to countdown to Christmas!
The tradition of the Advent calendar is rooted in German Lutheran history from the 19th century. It’s been widely adapted and is a popular Christmas tradition amongst families.
Essentially, an Advent calendar represents the 24 days leading up until Christmas. It is typically numbered 1-24 (Christmas Eve), or sometimes you’ll see 25 (Christmas Day). Often times, Advent calendars may be wooden and consist of tiny drawers or doors that open for a little surprise.
Advent calendars have evolved, and people have gotten quite creative! I’ve seen beautiful, vintage style wood house Advent calendars that are just so charming as Christmas decor, and I’ve also seen simple and beautiful DIY Advent calendars consisting of paper bags taped to a wall with numbers 1-24 on them! (I think this is such a cute idea if you want to make your own and keep it super simple!).
What Do You Put In An Advent Calendar?
This varies on the type of Advent Calendar you have! If you have an Advent calendar with a tiny drawer or door to open, any tiny treat or toy would be a great option! Think of little sweets like small candies or chocolate coins (Trader Joes always sells them during the holidays- we love to use these!), a small ornament, or little toy like a baby animal figurine or even a Lego figure!
If you don’t have much space behind your Advent doors, or if you’d like to avoid sweets and toys, you could consider a special note, a lyric to a Christmas song, a scavenger hunt clue, or a coin!
For years we’ve had this cute hanging Advent calendar on our door, that has these little felt pockets where a gingerbread man on a string goes into the appropriate day of Advent. My kids never even asked to have it filled with treats- they just love moving that cute gingerbread man in anticipation of Christmas!
(Which works out great for us since its a little tough to fit treats for 6 kids behind a single Advent door! Nor do my toddlers have the self-control to NOT eat 6 pieces of candy that aren’t all for them.)
Our DIY House Advent Calendar Details (And How It’s Basically Free)
Okay. So as I mentioned previously, this project was basically free to make, with the exception of the cost of groceries (which always costs an arm and a leg since we have 6 kids- ha!). But really- I noticed that on the Trader Joe’s bags, during the holidays, they have the most adorable winter house theme printed on them!
I really hope they keep this design each year because it’s so cute and festive. And this is what gave me the idea to scratch my original crafty, time-consuming Advent Calendar House DIY where I’d intricately sketch each house on a cardboard box and cut it out, for this pre-made holiday house print!
In a nutshell, all I had to do was carefully cut each house out of the exterior of the Trader Joe’s bags, number each one 1-24, tape each to the wall, and voila! A beautifully-done “House Advent Calendar” wall display!
*A few notes though:
Each Trader Joe’s bag had 6 houses printed on them, but one of them was a print of a Trader Joe’s grocery store with the store name on it, so I decided not to use that one. Since I used 5 of the houses from the grocery bags, I needed 5 total grocery bags for this project (for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, or the full 25 days). (5×5=25 if the holidays have you too exhausted to do the math π ).
First, I tried to cut the houses to be roughly the same size. I left some of the sky visible so I could still see the little snowflakes above each house, while also allowing the house cut-outs to be more of a “box” vs. an outline of each house.
Since these houses are cut from a paper bag, they’re prone to having lines from the bag creases. This didn’t bother me since the house designs are so cute and festive, and worth it, but I did place the cut houses under some heavy coffee table books overnight to help flatten them out. It worked great!
I used a white Sharpie to write the Advent Christmas countdown numbers 1-24 on each door, just like a little home address!
I found a spot in the house where the kids could easily see this hanging Advent calendar each morning, and taped each numbered house onto the wall. Since the paper is so lightweight, I just used a couple pieces of tape looped and stuck on the back, and it holds up perfectly. Plus, it’ll be very easy to remove, and then peel off so I can save this project for next year.
*Note: If you do a similar project, it doesn’t really matter how many houses you have in each row, as long as it is consistent. For example, you could have 5 rows of 5 houses if you choose to have your Advent calendar go all the way until December 25th, or you could do 6 rows of 4 houses each (or 4 rows of 6 houses each) if you choose to have your house Advent calendar go through Christmas Eve (24 days, instead of 25).
While doing this project, I thought we could either 1) lift the houses fully up or to the side, to allow more space for something behind it (ex: a note, a Christmas song lyric, a baseball card, anything flat), or 2) cut the doors on the house so they could actually open, although small, but still fit a tiny surprise (ex: a chocolate coin, a real coin, etc.). Either works!
One Advent tradition I love is to write a note or a clue of something festive we would be doing for that day, especially since the kids are in school still throughout the month of December. For example, “Hot Cocoa and Holiday Music After School!” or “Christmas Lights Around Town Tonight!” “Christmas Cookie Decorating!”- you get the idea!
I’m ALL for experiences, vs. little trinkets, although I do love using chocolate coins too… I’m always a sucker for those wholesome, nostalgic scenes where you could take your own kids and plop them back in time where they’re playing (nicely) with a small train or a sweet doll, and no one is fighting, and everyone is eating chocolate coins by their Christmas stockings… does anyone else understand what I’m talking about? It’s nostalgia, guys! The Days of Yore..
Anyhow. Back to the present.
In order to keep track of which day of Advent it is, I thought we could either take a little red bow or mini wreath (we had a leftover mini wreath from an old ornament project), and put a little tape or a removeable glue dot on the back so its easy to move each day from house to house. If you plan on taking this one step further, you could use magnetic stickers and glue them to the back of each house and wreath, so the ribbon/wreath will connect to the house with a magnetic backing. But I really think it’s easiest to just use a little tape or a glue dot.
*Note: If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s holiday bag option near you- improvise! Get ANY brown paper bag from a grocery store, repurpose it into cut squares and use a white Sharpie to create your own DIY Advent house calendar! Draw a house with a door, maybe add some snowflakes, number 1-24 (or 25), etc. and add a little red bow to move each day as you countdown to Christmas.
After all is said and done, here is our DIY House Advent Calendar Wall!
Not only was this project super easy, super cheap, and super festive, I also felt like a super friend to the environment repurposing some paper bags for the holidays. Reduce, reuse and recycle (or upcycle), friends! And Merry Christmas!!
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