a grown up advent calendar // diy
It's a bit insane how quickly the holidays have rolled in. I mean, I haven't even gotten the halloween decorations back into the attic. So one of the first things I got started on was a fun advent calendar for us. I feel like most of the time, they are for the kids, and since we don't have any of those, we just never tried our hand at one. This year, I decided to change that and start a new tradition for the two of us (my husband and i), so I created an advent for adults!
We have a lot of friends with kids, so I can confidently say this would easily get ripped off the walls if you made it for your kiddo's, sorry, adults only ;)
Basically, find a nice piece of wall real estate in your home, take a couple strands of mini lights, and drape them back and forth creating a nice web for you to clip up boxes and bags of goodies!
I used glassine bags, kraft bags, mini kraft boxes, tags, some bakers twine and clothespins to attach it all. I also used some gold wrapping paper and a white paint pen to create a sign over the top of our advent.
I mixed in some old traditions, some new traditions, small gifts and even an ingredient or two to get us going on some recipes.
i draped our lights over some of my favorite pieces from around our home… art, the 'for like ever' sign from our wedding, plants and fresh flowers.
The gold paper was also used to make labels for each day. I cut them into small diamonds, used a hole punch so i could hang them on the twine, and labeled with the white paint pen.
Here is a list of my favorites I included in our advent calendar.
- we add a new ornament to the tree every year, so i found a pretty S at anthro
- cute cards for a night of card games by the fire
- cinnamon sticks to add to our mulled wine
- homemade chili and holiday movie night
- try making marshmallows!
- a gift card to go on a date for some holiday flavored coffee
- tree shopping
- christmas music and trimming the tree
- hot chocolate and taking a tour of the neighborhood lights
- champagne and marshmallow roasting
- bag of each of our favorite winter candy (mines almond roca if you were wondering;)
well, this list goes on.. that should get you started if you need ideas though!
how cute are these cards?! almost makes me want to go camping… almost.
You can really put your own spin on this. It's a super simple DIY that you can customize around your home, your hobbies and traditions, and materials you already have at home.
Have fun creating your own!