DIY Christmas Advent Calendar

Now that all of the Thanksgiving craziness is over, it’s time to start thinking about the most wonderful time of the year and I couldn’t be more excited. As much as I loved preparing Thanksgiving food for a month straight (thanks to the blog!), I’m looking forward to focusing more on the magic and joy this season brings.

We have a solid list of Christmas traditions in our family, one of them being making an advent calendar. I made my first one for Peyton last year and she had a ball opening a packet each morning. Thanks to Target Dollar spot, I was able to get cute little gifts, but this year I want to focus a little less on the gifts and more on what Christmas is really about.

This year, our calendar will include some gifts and treats, but will also include little notes with activities and ways to give to others. I also plan on incorporating the Christmas story. Let me tell you, it takes some creativity to come up with 25 unique surprises!

I wanted to share this year’s calendar with you for inspiration. It was super easy and cheap to put together. I bought little paper bags and ribbon from Hobby Lobby and hand-wrote the numbers on each bag. We still have a lot of empty walls in our house, so I found the perfect space in our office to hang everything. I dressed it up with some garland and of course, twinkle lights.

An advent calendar like this is perfect on a blank wall, or the bags can be hung on an antique piece or placed underneath your tree. If you end up finding inspiration from this post, don’t forget to tag your photos with #marinamakesdiy!