DIY Advent Calendar Garland

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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.

DIY Advent Calendar Christmas Garland that looks like a string of peppermint candies.

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

DIY Advent Calendar garland hanging on a fireplace mantel.

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 on a white wooden surface.

Materials for DIY Advent Calendar Garland:

  • toilet paper tubes
  • 1 yard of fabric
  • ribbon
  • yarn or string
  • printable advent calendar labels

Red and white striped fabric being cut into rectangles with pinking shears for a DIY Advent Calendar.

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. 

Free printable DIY advent calendar labels being cut out.

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.

navigational image taking reader to a free printable advent calendar labels PDF.

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.

Toilet paper tubes being cut in half to make a DIY Advent Calendar

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.

toilet paper tubes being wrapped in red and white fabric to make a DIY Advent Calendar

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.

Pieces of a DIY Advent Calendar ready to be assembled into a Christmas garland.

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.

Pieces of a DIY Advent Calendar being strung together with yarn to create an advent calendar garland.

Use a needle and some yarn to string the all of the advent calendar pieces together in a garland.

DIY Advent Calendar garland made with red and white fabric on a white wooden background.

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.

DIY Advent Calendar garland hanging on a white fireplace mantel.

It's just the right size for our mantel!

DIY Advent Calendar garland hanging on a white fireplace mantel.

Do you have a Christmas countdown tradition?  Share your family's advent calendar tradition in the comments!

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12 Days of Holiday Ideas Event Sponsors 2019  

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Navigational link leading reader to tutorial for DIY Santa's Sack advent calendar garland.

Navigational link leading reader to tutorial for tulle Christmas garland tutorial.

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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