8 Great Advent Calendar Ideas

It's that time of the year again.  Time to get your advent calendars ready! I am just working on the ones for my kids and thought I would share some of the great ideas I found. I like to fill my kids' calendars myself instead of purchasing the pre-made ones.  That way, I can put in notes, some family activities for us to do, and a few special presents. Many of you probably have them finished already, but if you're like me and December 1st is sneaking up on you, here are a few ideas to help you get started:

1. This is such a cute advent calendar and it's made out of cardboard toilet paper rolls! The idea comes from Pysselbolaget.se and if you go to their site, you can download the Santa templates for free.

2. Who wouldn't love to open up a pinata every day until Christmas?  I know I think it's fun! You can find the tutorial, and even a cool animated picture to see how they work at HandmadeCharlotte.com.

3.  This is an advent calendar decorated with plastic animals that are spray painted white and then a red pom pom is glued to their noses.  This is perfect if your child is crazy about animals.  They get a Christmas animal plus a treat every day! Visit ABubblyLife.com for the full tutorial.

4. I love these cone trees and they are so easy to make.  All you need is some green paper, form them into cones, glue them, and add a number on them.  Place your treats under the cones and you have a great advent calendar that looks like a Christmas tree forest.  This idea comes from Spoonful.com

5. This punch-out advent calendar is so creative.  Kelly, who blogs at StudioDIY.com, always has really great ideas.  I'm sure the kids would love to have this one.

6. This adorable advent calendar is perfect for the robot lover in your life.  Get the printables and the instructions on NextToNicx.com

7.  Make your own scratch-off calendar with a new activity for your family to do together every day. I love this idea! You can get the printables for this with pre-filled-in activities or blank ones for you to fill in yourself. Get the printables and the instructions on how to make the scratch-off part using contact paper and a mix of silver paint and dish soap here.

8.  This one is an adult version and involves a bottle of wine a day. I don't know about you, but I could not drink one whole bottle every day for 24 days straight. Perhaps instead of drinking a bottle every day until Christmas, you can look at it as a way to build your wine collection! There isn't a tutorial or printables for this one, but you can simply tie a gift tag around each bottle of wine or print out labels on sticker paper.

I hope a few of those ideas can help you.  Happy advent calendar creating!

Picture sources: 1. Pysselbolaget | 2. HandmadeCharlotte.com | 3. ABubblyLife.com | 4. Spoonful.com | 5. Studio DIY | 6. Next to Nicx | 7. Julep | 8. Style Me Pretty