This DIY Kids Advent Calendar is easy to recreate and gives you plenty of room for hiding goodies for the countdown to Christmas…
While shopping for gifts can be last minute, a kids advent calendar is always a fun way to help keep the kids occupied during the Christmas countdown!
We’re not going to lie to you, we pretty much have zero chill when it comes to Christmas.
We’re like a PTA Mom with unlimited time and way too much caffeine.
Except, we’re actually neither of those things.
What we do have is a DIY advent calendar idea that’s worth writing home about, though.
While our kids are still too young to actually have any understanding of an advent calendar, we still find joy in it and love the idea of starting our first family traditions!
The good thing about this advent calendar is that they’re all made from mini boxes that actually hold a pretty substantial amount.
(Plus, we have a trick for displaying them on our temporary shelves for the holidays below!)
So you don’t have to worry about not having something for everyone with bigger families in mind.
Plus a lot of advent calendars are so small you can barely tuck a token inside!
Also, we’re shamelessly really into this color scheme so there’s that too.
So whip up an ornament cocktail, light up the pom pom tree, and get crafting…
What Is An Advent Calendar?
An advent calendar is a really fun way to get kids involved in the holiday excitement!
It’s basically a fun countdown calendar for kids to countdown to Christmas.
“Advent” actually refers to the four Sundays and weeks of the 24 days leading up to Christmas.
Some kid’s advent calendars are really simple and some are more elaborate.
They usually come with tokens inside as mini gifts along the way.
For ours, we filled them with fun snacks for each day so they go to good use without seeming to spoil the purity of gift-giving during the holiday season.
It’s a simple tradition that’s meant to bring a little excitement along the way like the elf on a shelf theme.
DIY Kids Advent Calendar Materials and Tools
This advent calendar features 24 mini cardboard houses made from boxes. It makes it really easy to store and reuse year after year since it’s durable and holds plenty of goodies!
Craft paint in the colors of your choice
Thick paintbrush for the base color of the houses
Thin paintbrush for the stripes
Mini cardboard houses — Ours are from Oriental Trading. You can also use party favor boxes or make your own from digital templates.
Fake snow — Optional for the roofs
Goodies to put inside!
Keep in mind that you can customize these boxes as much or as little as you’d like! It doesn’t have to be a super time-consuming holiday project.
Just light the Christmas tree, put on some holiday music, and let the kids help decorate them!
How To Make A DIY Kids Advent Calendar
Okay, so technically this DIY advent calendar is literally as easy as painting cardboard houses and putting some numbers on the front, but if you want to get extra fancy with it you can!
We painted the box bases and lids all white and sprinkled fake snow on the tops of the roof while they were still wet to act as glue to hold the snow on.
Once the white all dried, we painted thin stripes on each house in varying colors, let dry, and then put gold number stickers on the fronts.
Because you’ll need so many boxes, I definitely recommend these temporary adhesive strip wall shelves to display the houses on!
They’re sleek, easy to put up, and easy to take down without damaging the wall once the holidays are over.
Now all you have to do is fill your advent boxes and enjoy!
What to Put in an Advent Calendar
Not every holiday-themed advent calendar needs to come with a plethora of gifts.
That said, it does keep the kids entertained and excited about the countdown!
You can buy a lot of store-bought advent calendars that come pre-filled with small tokens.
Some popular ones are made by Meri Meri, Melissa & Doug, or the Fisher Price Little People Advent Calendar.
As far as ideas for what to put in a kids advent calendar, these are a few of my favorites —
Holiday-themed snacks
Toy mini figures and characters
Bath toys
Small kids accessories, such as hair ties or chapsticks
Mini coloring notepads
Candies
Really the sky is the limit on what to gift in these!
Again, our mini house advent calendar gives you a lot of opportunities to include a variation of items since they hold quite a bit.
Tips for Creating Your Own Advent Calendar
Plan ahead of time:
Make sure you start planning for your advent calendar well in advance.
You will need time to find all of the supplies and create the structure.
Find one that fits with your family:
Make sure to find an advent calendar that matches your personal beliefs, as well as those of your family.
Some families may want a religious-themed calendar, while others may prefer a Christmas-themed calendar.
More Christmas DIYs and Ideas
Do you have any favorite holiday traditions or advent calendar ideas that you love?! Be sure to let me know in the comments below!
It’s so fun getting to see how everyone else celebrates the holidays, and I’d love to know what some of your favorite advent ideas are.
You can also find more of my favorite Christmas DIYs and ideas right here —
- Our DIY colorful front door Christmas decor
- Easy Christmas scavenger hunt game
- DIY Jumbo garland outdoor Christmas decor
- Mini wooden Christmas trees
- Bottle brush tree Christmas centerpiece ideas
- Giant pom pom Christmas tree decor
DIY Kids Advent Calendar
Equipment
- Thick paintbrush for the base color of the houses
- Thin paintbrush for the stripes
Materials
- 25 mini cardboard houses
- Craft paint in the colors of your choice
- Gold number stickers
- Fake snow optional for the roofs
- Goodies to put inside
Instructions
- Paint the box bases and lids all white and sprinkled fake snow on the tops of the roof while they were still wet to act as glue to hold the snow on.
- Paint the houses in your color of choice. We pained our white. Once the white all dried, we painted thin stripes on each house in varying colors. Allow to dry.
- Add gold number stickers on the fronts to represent the days until Christmas.
- Now fill each box with goodies and display!
Hi! I love this and especially love the color scheme! Do you have a source for the little houses or can you tell me what size they are?
Hi Jen! We linked the exact ones from Oriental Trading but unfortunately, they are sold out. They were about 5 inches. These houses on Amazon are pretty cute too: https://shopstyle.it/l/bPtrE
Very nice and beautiful idea. I really like and appreciate this idea.
boxnovel
These are so cute! I love your color scheme! I think maybe next year my daughter will be old enough to be interested in an advent. She’s only 15 months at the moment, so probably still a little young for this. I’m really looking forward to creating our own family traditions.
Creating family traditions has been one of the best things. She’ll definitely understand it more next year! We still do the calendars and leave treats for ourselves instead. LOL.
This is sooooooo stinkin’ cute!! My kids would have loved this when they were younger!
You can still do it! I’m sure they’ll love it at any age! XOXO
This project is SO FREAKING CUTE!! I am so making this for the kids this year. One of our favorite traditions and I can’t wait to fill those little houses with tiny toys!
Hope it turns out well, Eden!
This is so cute! I love that you can fit a little more than just candy in them.
Thank you, Krissy! We are trying not to have the tooth fairy visit. LOL.
This is absolutely adorable! We’ve had an Advent Box for years with little drawers to fill but i love this idea. Such a cute decoration too.
I love this…super simple, but a really lovely and effective idea.
Thank you! We really try to have simple projects that will be easy for everyone!
I’d love to know the source for that felt ball garland.
This is so very cool. I know it would take a lot of work to set up. But my daughter would love something like this. She loves Advent Calendars.
Oh my! This has to be the cutest most sweet advent calendar ever! I could try to do it myself, but I’m terrible with DIY project, lol
I love advent calendars and I had never considered making my own! This is such a creative and well-done idea!
That is the best idea. I love how clean it is and the pictures was taken very well!
This is a very pretty diy advent calendar. Great idea to decorate for the holiday season.
I love it! I have never thought to make my own advent calendar I always buy! But this would be so much fun to send to my nephews!
This is the prettiest thing I’ve seen all day! I love the idea and the colors and the pictures. And now I want a Justin’s peanut butter cup. 😀
These are so pretty! They look a lot more fun than the average advent calendar as well!
What a fab idea for a home craft to make your own advent calendar. Much more personal too xx
I love this – it’s so cute! What a great idea to make your own adventure calendar!
How cute is that? I wish I still had the exuberance that I had during my kid’s first christmas lol.
These are so cute! My mom just got my boys a Lego advent calendar because that’s their current favorite toys. I love the idea of making your own, though!
Oh my gosh these are so pretty and so fun! I love how they look!