40 DIY Advent Calendar Ideas to Help You Count Down to Christmas

Treasure fond memories while counting the days till Christmas by re-creating Sarah Hearts’ photo Advent calendar. The hand-painted tree on a plywood board is filled with 25 printable cards (yes, there’s one for Christmas Day too!) that you can customize with your own photos of family, vacations, or pets.

Thanks to an array of paper “mailboxes,” this refillable wood-framed foam board from Houseful of Handmade delivers tiny toys from Santa to your kith and kin. Its sturdy construction means you’ll be able to use it for many Christmas seasons to come.

Following this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess, hang hand-stitched felt stockings from a frame made of wooden rods, yarn, and beads so little ones can reveal a daily surprise from Father Christmas. Choose colors or styles to match your home’s holiday decor.

This Advent calendar from Alice & Lois encourages you to give back as you count down. Write 25 good deeds on slips of paper, then place each one into an envelope and hang the envelopes from twine or ribbon. Open up a new envelope every day, then get out there and do some good.

Friends or family members will feel like they’ve won the lottery when they get their hands on this scratch-off calendar from A Beautiful Mess. Top paper snowflakes with soap-covered circular card stock cutouts that have numbers written on them. To claim your daily prize, scratch off a circle to reveal the number, then look under the “tree” to find the corresponding gift.

Chelsea Foy of Lovely Indeed made this Advent calendar full of positive activities when her children were little, and she decided to create one with teens and pre-teens in mind. It includes some digital kindness, like texting a silly photo to make a friend or relative smile. She aims to help teens step slightly outside their comfort zone while learning about empathy and consideration. Her post includes ideas for display, printing, and—best of all—a list to prompt activity ideas.

For an evergreen Advent calendar idea, follow this tutorial from The Merrythought that uses matchboxes reinforced with birch plywood and jazzed up with white paint. Suspend the little boxes from an evergreen branch hung on the wall. Inside each matchbox, place the name of a person to call or write to, or a holiday activity for everyone to enjoy, so you can make the most of this joyful season.

As the blogger behind Something Simple demonstrates, you can make a surprisingly glammed-up gift-giving station with little more than dollar-store party favor tins outfitted with magnets and mounted on a fridge (or stand-alone magnetic board) in the shape of a tree. 

Enlist the youngest members of your family to help construct this Christmas neighborhood from A Beautiful Mess with brown kraft paper or card stock. Number each little house and fill it with a tiny trinket before you tape it shut.

Inspired by the “Punch a Bunch” game on The Price Is Right, this nonstop-fun calendar from Studio DIY conceals 24 gifts behind 24 holes. It’s made of paper or plastic bowls, tissue paper, and fringed garlands. Bonus: There’s an extra goody for Christmas Day stashed beneath the giant red bow topper!

Foodies can get Christmas to go this year by making this too-clever Advent calendar from Studio DIY. Treat-filled takeout boxes in all the colors of the rainbow are stacked in rows to make the season brighter.

Those fond of organizing will revel at the prospect of counting down to Christmas with this rustic timber-and-fabric Advent wall chart from The Painted Hive. Five rows of chalkboard paper pockets are filled with merry memos printed on shipping tags—perfect for hanging on the Christmas tree.

This Christmas, leave Santa some eye candy rather than cookies by building this Advent village from Lia Griffith. The dainty dwellings that dangle from the mantel are made of colored paper and red-and-white baker’s twine. They’re so irresistible that you’ll want to live in one yourself.

Would you rather give your family members memorable experiences, or the latest toys or trinkets? In Rachel Denbow’s felt-paneled Advent calendar, each pocket holds a fun bonding activity like “Bake Brownies Together” or “Rent a Movie.”

More than a pop of color, this Advent calendar created by Look What I Made promises a poppin’ good time. The wall-mounted driftwood “Christmas tree” brims with colorful numbered balloons, each bearing a loving note, holiday activity, or tasty treat that is revealed when the balloon is popped.

Save on materials and use a sustainable backdrop by repurposing a hanging shoe organizer. Heather Castillo of Super Mom Life shows you how to make an attractive but easy Advent calendar that can hang right over a door. She tells readers how to create numbers for each pocket using a Cricut Maker. Since these pockets can hold shoes, they also can hide slightly larger gifts; just wrap them in holiday tissue paper. Plus, this calendar/organizer can serve double purpose after the holiday for ornament storage.

Take a cue from Sincerely, Sara D to spread joy throughout Advent without doling out presents every day of December. Simply string up 25 miniature holiday ornaments on a chalkboard-painted artist’s canvas labeled with handwritten numerals. Take down one ornament each day and transfer it to the Christmas tree for added sparkle.

With the help of an old picture frame and dollar-store scrapbook paper, toilet paper tubes were artfully adapted into pillow boxes stuffed with miniature must-haves in this calendar from Smashed Peas and Carrots. It’s a great way to reuse and repurpose; besides, people have made holiday decorations from weirder things.

This crafty counter from Mod Podge Rocks is a scene stealer in any room it occupies. Decoupaged papier-mâché boxes decorated with die-cut numerals are mounted to a merry, moss-colored canvas and filled with treats or stocking stuffers. 

You can count on the folks at The Home Depot to think up an Advent calendar design that requires joining a few lengths of pine boards together. Hammer 24 nails into the board so they’re still sticking out, and hang a numbered ornament from each one. Beautiful!

In this Advent calendar from A Beautiful Mess, gold-leafed papier-mâché boxes are emblazoned with numerals, strung together into a garland, and filled with irresistible edibles and seasonal trinkets. Talk about star power!

Novelty-size jam jars are transformed by Duni’s Studio into tiny capsules that contain something seasonal to help you count down the days until Christmas. What you put in the jars is entirely up to you—sweets, a small trinket, a Christmas story to share, or a special note . 

A decorative ladder gets a reboot as a sleek and slender Advent calendar. The blogger at Her Tool Belt merely installed cup hooks along the rungs. From those hang cotton muslim bags as reminders of the swiftly approaching holiday. 

A bit of twine takes a criss-cross route on an old shutter in this Advent calendar from DIY Beautify. Cards containing special treats can be clipped onto the string to help you measure your excitement until the big day.

A maritime tradition gets a very merry update in this Advent calendar idea from The Merrythought. Roll slips of paper containing special messages, quotes, or do-good assignments into slender bottles (available from craft stores), then uncork one each day until Christmas.

This lightweight banner from Lovely Indeed can be suspended from a nail in the wall to preside over a holiday vignette. The felt is bonded to the banner with iron-on adhesive to keep it secured—without the unsightly wrinkling that can be caused by poorly applied craft glue, or the time-intensive labor or stitching with embroidery floss. 

When sugar-craving guests lift the lid of this candy-dish counter from Just a Girl, they’ll find something even sweeter than chocolate: 24 thoughtful gifts wrapped in mini matchboxes covered with decorative scrapbook paper.

Give young kids a chance to use up some holiday energy with this punchout Advent calendar from Autumn Baldwin at It’s Always Autumn. Take a piece of foam core and repurpose or buy plastic party cups to arrange like a tree. Cover each opening with a paper holiday napkin or tissue paper, held on by a rubber band. Kids can punch through the paper each day of Advent. 

The elegant arrangement of glittering ornaments atop a cork-filled picture frame from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs makes for a festive decoration. On each day of Advent, simply transfer one ornament to the Christmas tree.

A collection of pretties that look like 24 tiny shopping bags from a high-end boutique, this calendar from Mama Miss can be made on a low-end budget. Simply string up tiers of miniature patterned gift boxes, each with an elegant printable numbered sticker.

Christmas seems to roll around sooner when you mark Advent with this calendar from Carolyn’s Homework. It’s nothing more than a bold roll of red ribbon that unfurls to reveal one more paper numeral with each new day, along with snowflakes, stars, and rhinestones.

String a little whimsy from your walls when you re-create this fabric Advent calendar from Cirkus. Bits of colorful fabric are sewn into cones and fitted with eyelets through which a ribbon or string is threaded. Drop a tiny gift inside each cone to give little ones something special to unwrap every day.

Your resident rodents might not have touched the bait on your mousetraps, but kids won’t be able to keep their mitts off this treasure from Fynes Designs. Deactivated mousetraps serve as clipboards to secure tiny trinket-filled sachets or Christmas cards.

Foster patience in little ones—and pile on the Yuletide fun—by building this car lovers’ calendar from Studio DIY. The festive fabric counter consists of colorful, treasure-filled felt pockets and a felt truck hot glued to an off-white felt sheet that hangs from a dowel on a wall. Each day of December, tiny hands can collect the Velcro-backed gift in the corresponding pocket and stick it on the bed of the truck, then unwrap a literal truckload of gifts on Christmas Day.

Follow Swoonworthy’s tutorial to build this blinged-out Christmas counter upcycled from a plain cabinet with 25 drawers. Paint the cabinet in an eye-catching hue, cover the drawers with contact paper or colored washi tape, then bedazzle them with adhesive diamantes, sequins, or ribbon, and of course, Advent numbers. Fill the drawers with chocolates or other goodies wrapped in gold tissue paper. The drawers open, shut, and empty with ease, so you can reuse the calendar next year.

If it doesn’t feel like Christmas unless you’re opening gifts from beneath evergreen boughs, make this naturalistic calendar from Taryn Whiteaker the main attraction of Advent. Like ornaments hanging from Christmas tree branches, gift-filled miniature galvanized buckets wrapped in decoupaged drop cloth hang from faux greenery mounted to a large painted wooden board. A vinyl sign adorns the top of the calendar, or you can adorn it with repurposed or thrifted holiday decor.

Who said Advent calendars are just for kids? Made by topping a basic mug rack with metallic baubles, faux greenery, and cotton muslin favor bags with ironed-on numerals, this farmhouse-style Christmas counter from Taryn Whiteaker is the height of sophistication. Just be sure to mount it high on the wall to keep pets and children at bay.

A space-saving, time-saving alternative to setting up a traditional tree, Homey Oh My’s tree-shaped wall-mounted Advent calendar comes together with just a wooden dowel, some string and clothespins, mini tote boxes, and tiny tree stickers. But while the calendar keeps a low profile on the wall, the boxes are big enough to stash gifts, treats, or sentimental notes. With 25 totes on the calendar, that special someone will get an extra gift on Christmas.

Create this cheery counter from A Subtle Revelry by assembling 24 printable pouches with double-sided tape. Fill the pouches with tiny treasures, and then hang them from a wall-mounted wooden dowel using strings of different lengths for an artful asymmetrical arrangement.

Bring the Advent party right to the room you spend plenty of time in around the holidays: the kitchen. Colleen Pastoor at Lemon Thistle solved her calendar hanging dilemma with attractive DIY boxes stuck right to the refrigerator door in the shape of a tree. Just number and decorate favor boxes held tight with two craft magnets each.