This DIY advent calendar doubles as a charming Christmas garland that looks like a string of peppermint candies. Fill this advent calendar garland with candies, and since it's made with durable fabric, you'll be able to use it year after year.
Welcome to the 5th annual 12 Days of Holiday Ideas event, hosted by Shirley of Intelligent Domestications and Erlene of My Pinterventures Between Nov. 11th and December 6th there will be hundreds of new ideas shared by over 55 Co-host bloggers! Today we're all sharing ideas for advent calendars.
Go here to see our kick-off collection of holiday ideas as well as all of this years talented participating DIY and foodie blogs. Download this years November and December calendars with all of the topics and dates so you can make plans to watch for ideas!
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DIY Advent Calendar Garland
I make a present chain advent calendar for my daughters each year, but this year, I decided to make a DIY advent calendar garland that would be reusable each year.
Materials for DIY Advent Calendar Garland:
- toilet paper tubes
- 1 yard of fabric
- ribbon
- yarn or string
- printable advent calendar labels
Cut 24 rectangles of the fabric, each 7" x 8.5" in size. I used pinking shears to trim the short ends of the rectangle so the edges wouldn't fray over years of use. Plus, the zig zag edge looks decorative and cute.
Print and cut out numbered labels for the DIY advent calendar. I've created these printable labels for you to make this as easy as possible.
The circles are 1" in diameter, so a 1" circle punch makes it easy to cut out perfect circles. You can certainly cut them out by hand, too, if you don't have a circle punch.
The peppermint candies for the garland get their shape and structure from a cardboard center made from empty toilet paper tubes. Cut each tube in half for this advent calendar garland.
Use a low temperature glue gun to glue a cardboard tube to the top of one of the rectangles of fabric. Center the cardboard tube as best you can (but it's ok to just eyeball it--absolute precision isn't necessary for this project).
Wrap the fabric around the tube, and secure the fabric to the tube with more hot glue.
Use ribbon to tie the ends. I started by tying bows, but then decided that I liked the look of a simple knot and short length of ribbon even better.
If you don't want to turn these into a garland, I think a big bowl full of these advent calendar bonbons would make a lovely Christmas decoration.
What Should I Put in a DIY Advent Calendar?
I filled mine with chocolate coins. Any kind of small, individually wrapped candies would work well in this advent calendar garland. If you want to stay away from candies, erasers are a great option. This pack of 30 adorable Christmas erasers is only $10 and would fill your entire DIY advent calendar, and leave a few extras for stocking stuffers.
Use a needle and some yarn to string the all of the advent calendar pieces together in a garland.
You could also put the yarn through the center of the bonbons before you tie the ribbons to close the ends if you don't want to mess with needles to make this Christmas garland.
It's just the right size for our mantel!
Do you have a Christmas countdown tradition? Share your family's advent calendar tradition in the comments!
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