DIY Christmas Advent Calendar Gifts & Ideas

Written on December 27, 2022

by Jordan Engdahl

DIY 25 Days Of Christmas Advent Calendar

50 DIY Christmas Advent Calendar Gifts & Ideas

Every year, as December approaches, I think, “What can I do to make this year different?” I want the holidays to be a magical time in our home, as it was when I was a child. Our family just started growing in 2021, so at this point in time, my husband and I have only gone through one Christmas with my brother-in-law, and our baby girl (who was only 5 months then). With that being said, it wasn’t even in our own home. We lived in my parents house during our home renovation. 

So, this year, I thought, we can start whatever traditions we want. Before we had kids, I contemplated, 

• Do we want to invite Santa into our home (mostly, because I’m the worlds most AWFUL liar)? 

• Do we want to add a million presents under the tree, or is there another way we can celebrate the Christmas season? 

• Do we want to allow an Elf into our home (this is totally up my ally, so if we had an Elf, we’d have to incorporate Santa)? 

P.S. If you don’t know what I am talking about when I mention “Elf” stuff, please go look up “Elf on the Shelf,” because it’s adorable. 

Anyways, my point in having all these thoughts, as I’m sure it’s not uncommon for new parents to have, is that I didn’t want my kids to grow up thinking Christmas was just about getting the most gifts. The more I consider and research, I realize that it is going to be all up to my husband and I and how we raise our children. The process of growing up, am I right? Haha! 

Since our daughter will only be 17 months old, I know she won’t completely understand what is going on. Maybe, I have a couple more years before Christmas traditions really come into play. Though, we can always start showing gratitude and appreciation in our household to help her start to learn the true meaning of Christmas.

My brother-in-law, Timmy, on the other hand, he really likes his gifts and that’s all birthdays and Christmas is to him. He had his own bringing up as a child and to him, gifts made him feel special. It’s how he knew people listened to him, about the things he wanted or the things he liked. Even random gifts that he never asked for made him feel special; who wouldn’t feel that way? To watch him receive a gift is almost as exciting to me as it is for him to open it. Since he is living under our roofs, as we have become his guardians, I feel that it is my responsibility now to help him realize that getting gifts upon gifts isn’t the purpose of the holiday. 

I order many of our gifts online, so he’s been seeing all of the boxes that come in (some have many items inside, so the box looks big, making the gift inside look big) and this year he said to me, “I know there’s going to be a lot of big gifts under the tree this year!” And looked so excited. I immediately cringed inside thinking, “This isn’t the reason I spend all this money on gifts. It’s not my purpose to look like we have the most gifts under the tree, or the biggest. I need him to realize that we’re grateful for the gifts we’re given. Someone spent their time and money to think about you because you mean something to them and they’re showing their appreciation by gifting you love, in the form of a gift.” 

My love language is Gift Giving, though. It makes me feel like I have purpose when I come up with a meaningful gift (that’s not just going to be thrown into someone’s closet abyss) and that person seems genuinely grateful. So, as I’m trying to come up with ideas to make our holiday more fun this year, I decided to create a 25 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar. Timmy is currently 25 years old and understand’s that parents are the ones who really help Santa out – if you catch my drift. So, while the Elf pulling off all of his stunts really would be fun to see everyday, it wouldn’t be as magical as it is for a young child to experience. Instead, I have to come up with other fun activities that make each day exciting for us.

I decided to surprise him with a special Advent Calendar. Small gifts, that still brighten his day. The act of me doing this for him for the whole month of December, I hope, helps him to acknowledge the love we have for him as he is a part of our family. It shows that we want and enjoy him here, and I hope deep down he feels that, even though I know he wouldn’t be able to put it into words. 

DIY 25 Days Of Christmas Advent Calendar

There are plenty of ways you could make your own advent calendar, I am just going to briefly explain how I chose to create ours. It would’ve been nice to make it on wood so that it would last and I could reuse it every year. But to be honest, I really didn’t feel like storing it away and bringing it out since it wouldn’t have fit into a box. Sure, I could have chosen to buy a premade advent calendar, and yes it would have been easier, and probably cheaper. But, this way I was able to put items in each day’s bag that I knew he would enjoy. Plus, read further to see what twist I added to it! 

Included in the photo are only some of the items I used as gifts.

Materials

• 2 Foam poster boards

• Ribbon & Decorative Bow

• Mini clothespins

• 25 paper bags

• 2 bags of Decorative Crinkle Paper Shreds

• Hot glue

• Glitter glue

  
  

I bought all of this at the Dollar Store, except for the mini clothespins, which were from Michael’s Craft Store.

I also bought 9 bundles of brown paper gift bags. Now I realize that I could’ve just bought a bundle of brown paper lunch bags from the grocery store, especially since the Dollar store is “Everything’s a $1.25!” and that added up quickly.

I know, they’re out of order! Haha, I was just using the bags as a measuring tool for my clothespins.

I placed two poster boards together to make it really long (you could do it either way though – on top or next to each other). The only regret that I have for doing it the long way, is that it was really hard for me to find an area to place in the house. I put it up on the counter, in the kitchen so that the baby and dog didn’t get it (we have an area with no cabinets), and it just barely fit between the counter and the ceiling (of course, leaving a mark on the ceiling where I pushed it into place. Nothing a magic easer couldn’t fix though!)

I attached the poster boards with hot glue and then reinforced it with packing tape on either side. Then, I placed the decorative ribbon across, horizontally, and again vertically to make it look like a present. At the end, I placed a giant bow in the empty corner. 

I cut each brown paper bag in half and used the glitter glue to add numbers 1-25 on each one. While that dried, I hot glued 25 mini clothespins (measuring with the bags beforehand) along the length of the poster boards. Once the bags were dried, I added decorative crinkle paper shreds inside. 

Now to the good stuff! 

See the photos below to find out some of the items I personally added to Timmy’s Advent Calendar, in favor of him, but you could add anything you wanted. Here are some ideas for boys or girls and with a range of ages in mind.

25 Gift Ideas

1. Gift Card (it doesn’t have to be a lot)

2. Festive Socks

3. Makeup or Nail Polish

4. Coupons for a Free Day of No Chores or a Specific Chore

5. Hair Accessories

6. Miniature Doll or Animal Accessories 

7. Small Toy

8. Candy

9. Chips/Treat/Snack

10. Small Puzzle or Game

11. Pop or Juice Box

12. A Small Craft (ex: make a Christmas tree ornament)

13. Money

14. A Shirt

15. Box of Raisins or Chocolate Coal

16. Mini Lego Kit

17. Lottery Ticket

18. A Book 

19. Coloring Activity Items

20. Temporary Tattoo

21. Slime or Play Dough

22. Sports Item (cards, figurine, toy)

23. Cookie Cutters (for the bakers!)

24. Lotion or Bath Bomb/Bubbles

25. Bath toys

25 Fun Activities or Random Acts of Kindness for the Day

1. Build Snowmen

2. Go See Santa

3. Tickets to Go see a Movies

4. Bake Cookies

5. Go Get the Christmas Tree & Decorate it

6. Write a Letter to Santa

7. Go Sledding OR Ice Skating

8. Donate Old Toys to Make Room for the New

9. PJ Day!

10. Go to A Christmas Light Show OR Drive Around and Look at Local Neighborhood Lights

11. Make a Gingerbread House (Kit)

12. Look for Local Holiday Events in your Town

13. Write a happy (or a funny – appropriate – joke) note for someone to find (could be in the house or at the store)

14. Buy or make a gift for someone near and dear

15. Make some treats for the Delivery Person or Mailman (or write a note & leave it in the mailbox to brighten their day!)

16. Make a Christmas Letter or Gift for Your Teacher

17. Make Reindeer Food

18. Game Night with the Family

19. Invite a Friend over for Game Night, Hot Chocolate, and a Movie (Slumber Party Style?)

20. Kids Pick the Dinner Idea for the Night

21. Kids Pick for Christmas Movie of the Night (or any Movie?)

22. RAK: Pick Someone Else’s Chore for the Day

23. RAK: Put Some Money Into a Vending Machine (and leave it for the next person)

24. Take the Dog to the Dog Park or Outside for some Extra Play Time

25. Library Day!

Our Advent Calendar Twist!

In the photos below, you’ll notice I wrote on a note inside many of the bags. Most of the gifts he’ll receive were too big to fit into the bags, so he has to work for several of them! A few just tell him where to look, some will give a clue to find the location of his next gift, and many others have an educational question and answer problem that has to be figured out to get the location (or the gift itself was meant to be a learning activity). One of the days, he has a whole scavenger hunt where instead of the note stating a riddle of where to find the next clue, he has to answer the question to receive the next location until the end where he’ll obtain his gift. The clues consist of math problems, rhymes, money questions, anything that I thought he could benefit with extra practice. And it gives him a fun challenge that he will enjoy!

If you’re interested in learning more about Timmy, or what we do with him to help him keep learning and stay active, I will be uploading a post soon, so stay tuned.

DIY Christmas Advent Calendar Gifts & Ideas

Advent Bag Inserts

Bag #1 : A note saying I would take a chore of his choice – he just had to use it in the month of December – and he would still earn the star for it. (You can read all about “earning stars” in another post soon!)

Bag #5 : I guess it wasn't a riddle, just a math problem. “What is half of 60?”

Bag #6 : My husband is a hunter, therefore, we have many animals around the house. This specific snack was laying inside a coyote’s mouth.

Bag #7 : Rilynn’s Play Kitchen Freezer

Bag #10 : We don’t let Timmy drink pop often, so when my husband and I took a weekend trip up north, he got to enjoy this treat while we were gone.

Bag #11 : Stuffed with a scratch off lottery ticket!

Bag #13 : He actually just found his (shirt) gift inside the washer!

Bag #14 : A clue stating “I am resting where you find stinky shoes,” in which he found a wrapped Lego set to build!

Bag #15 : Gingerbread House Kits!

Bag #16 : Riddle: “What happened when the yellow hat fell into the Red Sea?”

Bag #17 : Family Movie Night!

Bag #19 : Christmas Craft! I found this in the stocking stuffer area at BassPro Shops.

Bag #20 : The Scavenger Hunt prize was a travel Yahtzee Game!

Bag #22 : A Kinder Egg!

Bag #23 : A Pringle can!

Bag #24 : A Loofah back scrubber hidden in the shower with a bow. He was given no hint on where to look, he just had to keep his eyes open!

Bag #25 : Hahaha! We ended up being in the middle of a snow storm on this day, and he had to walk down our long driveway to the mailbox! What a way to end the fun!

OK, thanks for reading my – more than large – blurb. Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Lastly, if you have any comments, opinions, or traditions of your own, please share them with me! I’d LOVE to hear from you!