I thoroughly enjoyed making our own DIY Advent Calendar in the run up to Christmas last year, to watch Liv’s reaction as she revealed a new Itty Bitty character each day was magical. It was so easy to make and much more fun (albeit, less tasty) than opening a chocolate advent calendar. In this post, we will show you how to make your own Christmas Advent Calendar using stocking filler toys.
On a recent trip to IKEA, these cute, festive Advent Calendar bags (£7.50) inspired me. It hopped into my basket ready for me to make another personal toy advent Calendar this year. As you can see from the Sim’s Life Instagram feed, the smiles are definitely worth adding your own magic touch to a daily calendar.
Creating A Homemade Advent Calendar For Christmas
What are great Advent Calendar contents ideas?
The great thing about starting from scratch with a fillable Advent Calendar is the fact you can fill it with anything! Whether you want to make a toy advent calendar, advent calendar for adults, alcohol advent calendar.
Possibly even a simple home made chocolate advent calendar, the options are limitless and allows you get creative!
What to include in a DIY Advent Calendar
The recently launched range of Disney Princess Itty Bittys, available from Hallmark will be included in the bags, I have a feeling someone will appreciate the super cute and soft Princess’s being added to her collection!
That is what I love about Itty Bittys, the range is ever expanding and there is so much scope with the characters that can be included in the collection. The cute soft plush toys are the perfect size for a daily Advent Calendar treat!
Filling an Advent Calendar
Clearly there are 24 Advent bags to fill and there needs to be a new surprise every day. The size of the actual bags dictates what I gifts I can actually use but fortunately I have a lovely selection of gifts that I was keeping for this activity.
The BlogOn Christmas conference goodie bags contained so many fantastic gifts that are perfect for adding to the advent calendar including Trolls Top Trump Cards, Hatchimals Colleggtibles and a Shopkins blind bag.
However I’ve found stores like Home Bargains have a fabulous selection of small fun items that can easily be included in a home made Advent calendar.
I am as excited to make the calendar this year as I am to see Mini Me’s reaction. She is now at ‘that’ age so it’s great to retain some of the Christmas sparkle and keep the magic alive… especially for me! 😉
How cute are these awesome Star Wars Tsum Tsum’s soft plush toys? I know these will be a hit as surprisingly Mini Me is quite the fan of Star Wars and will fit perfectly into the bags! I shall have to watch out though as I expect these to be smuggled into school… or attempted to anyway! You can pick up your own collection of Tsum Tsum’s.
Brainstorm also very kindly sent a Magno Z and Stickbot to include in the Advent bags from IKEA. They are super colourful and a wonderful inclusion into our Advent Calendar.
Final thoughts on making your own DIY advent calendar
The advent calendar has a long and varied history, with many different interpretations and purposes. It is a cherished tradition for many families, and continues to be popular today.
I hope you have enjoyed learning about this festive tradition, and that you will consider starting your own advent calendar countdown this year!
Will you be making your own Advent Calendar this year?
Other Christmas posts you may enjoy:
A Round Up Of Christmas Gift Ideas
