The absolute best part of the festive season for me is making a DIY Christmas advent calendar. I spend months thinking about ideas until I come up with one that makes me smile and this year it was this idea of planted Christmas trees.
While I love making an advent calendar, the icing on the cake is my daughter Anya’s delight in counting down to Christmas. I think the countdown and the fun leading up to Christmas Day is more exciting than the day itself.
The idea behind this DIY Christmas advent calendar came from going Christmas tree shopping and seeing lots and lots of trees in one place.
The one thing I love most about this calendar is that it’s ageless. It works just as well for an adult as it does a kid. Fill it with activity ideas for any age and enjoy counting down to Christmas.
Plant a tree: DIY Christmas Advent Calendar
Materials:
24 micro terracotta pots (US readers find similar here)
24 mini trees (US readers find similar here)
cork sheet approx 3mm/0.1inch thick
dark brown acrylic paint
wooden skewer
number stickers
wire cutters (optional)
fake snow and mini reindeers (optional)
First of all you want to make the ‘soil’ to plant your Christmas trees. Use something round to draw and cut out cork circles that are small enough to fit just inside your terracotta pots. My circles are approx 28mm or 1.1 inches in diameter. (I used the lid of a glue stick).
Once you’ve got all 24 cork circles, paint them dark brown – you can paint only one side and the edges as the other side won’t be seen.
While they’re drying you can number your little terracotta pots – use stickers or write on the numbers. And fill your pots with your advent filling – see more on the filling below.
Once your cork discs are dry, take a wooden skewer (or similar) and make a hole in the middle of each circle. Stick your trees through this hole and place each one just inside your terracotta pots. If you’re using fake snow sprinkle some over the trees. You can also dot around a few mini reindeer to create a Christmas scene. And that’s it. Your Christmas tree advent calendar is done.
THE FILLING
My terracotta pots are pretty small because I don’t fill my advent calendar with chocolates/sweets. Instead I prefer little notes with activities that make our festive season that bit more special.
If you did want to put in chocolates, the smallest sized chocolate coins (around 2cms/0.4inches) as pictured above, will just about fit in these pots but you will most likely have to trim the tree trunks with wire cutters. Alternatively you can go up a size or two with the pots and the trees if you want to fit a bit more in there.
If you are looking for a different filler idea, this advent calendar filler idea is so wonderful for adults and kids.
Here’s a short video of the making of this DIY advent calendar:
As you can see it’s easy to make and put together and they look so cute when you have all 24 of them lined up. If you want, you could paint the terracotta pots too – I prefer a more natural look so I kept them as they are.
Who will you make this DIY Christmas advent calendar for?
Oh Nomita, this is just so beautifully chic, every year you create utter masterpieces for your advent calendars. Dreamy. Love the idea of notes/ activities inside too. Lots of love x
Thank you so much V – means so much to me that you like it. Happy Christmas (in advance!) xx