Christmas is such a special time and I think its a great idea to have a countdown from the first to 24’th of December for kids to know when Christmas comes. That way they won’t have to ask every day and on the 25’th they get their presents.

Every day from the first of December, a number gets poked to see the gifts inside. I suggest adding bible verses for older kids or maybe the story of Jesus (or Santa if you prefer) so every other day they can get an additional paragraph until the story is complete.

The kids had so much fun making this advent calendar. This seems like a lot of steps but its fairly easy!

You will need:

• Brown Paper
• 24 Toilet paper rolls
• Glue gun or strong fast-drying glue
• Pencil and red, green or black marker
• Numbers stencil (optional)
• Scissors
• Strong piece of card board like from boxes or curtain packaging
• Small stickers, sweets and gifts that fits into a toilet paper roll. If you are planning to make one house for multiple kids, remember to buy gifts that you can fit more into one toilet paper rolls. I have two kids so everything had to be small enough to fit two into one toilet paper roll
• Short piece of string or ribbon

 

Step 1

Trace the toilet paper roll with a pencil to make 24 circles, leaving enough space in between for adhesion tabs.

Step 2

Stencil the numbers 1-24 in the middle of the circles

Step 3

Cut the circle out, about half an inch or less away from the pencil line and cut small little tabs so the paper can go around the circular toilet roll smoothly.

Step4

Glue and paste.

Step 5

Glue all the pieces neatly together with a glue gun. Its important to use fast drying glue otherwise it will fall apart before it dries. Remember to do all the numbers backwards from right to left, otherwise you may get your numbers mixed up.

Step 6

Cut out two identical rectangles for the roof (optional to make it stick over the front edge to give it more depth. The back edge needs to be flush with the wall.) Place them and trace the triangles for the triangular space in between to give strength to the structure.

Step 7

Now this is a tricky part and you may need an extra set of hands… Once again its much easier with a glue gun (hint hint… glue guns aren’t optional in a crafty house) Hold the two roof sections 90 degrees and glue them together. Glue the back triangle flush and place a toilet roll to measure the distance for the front triangle. Glue baby glue!

Step8

Glue the roof to the toilet paper rolls. This is very tricky and needs strong glue that dries properly to hold.

Step 9

Paste a little strip of glue to the back of your roof and stick a loop that you can hang it on.

Step 10

Now you’re ready to insert all the gifts in the rolls. As I said in the “You will need” above, if you are planning to make one house for multiple kids, remember to buy gifts that you can fit more into one toilet paper rolls. I have two kids so everything had to be small enough to fit two into one toilet paper roll.

I bought all my gifts at a dollar store and some of the items include finger lasers, stickers, ink stamps, mini bath ducks, candy watches, candy dummies and other sweets.

Step 11

Lastly, cut a piece of cardboard big enough for the back of the house to cover all the openings and glue it tightly to the back.

 

Viola, your advent calendar is done!  I can suggest sticking it with additional prestik to make sure the weight holds all the gifts.

Remember not to be too worried about how it looks. Another one we made did not come out so perfect (you can see it in the pictures with the gifts above) but I actually loved it.

Enjoy!

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