diy advent calendar

Christmas is coming up in less than a month! Time flies...

Which means, it's time for advent calendars! My family has been doing advent calendars for as long as I can remember. The kind where you open the little door each day and eat the piece of chocolate that has a holiday themed picture stamped on it. It's one of the most important parts of Christmas for me, symbolizing the start of the holiday season.

But before now, I'd never really thought about DIYing it.

Of course, we're still doing the advent calendars with the chocolates, but I figured, this year, why not put one up in my room? The more the merrier!

For this simple craft you'll need:

paper + washi tape + the printables below + string +  hole puncher +  glue stick + stapler + scissors

PRINTABLES

Tag Templates (you may need two of these)
Labels
Labels 2
Days Left Labels
Days Left Labels 2

Cut out the tag templates from the printable, leaving lots of space around the sides. Place one on top of a small stack of pieces of paper and staple the edges so that they stay in place. Use the template to cut this stack into a tag shape. Repeat this until you have 25 tags.
 

Next, cut out each of the date labels and use thin strips of washi tape to attach them to the tags.

Cut out the "days left" labels and glue them to the backs of the corresponding tags. Start with "24 days left" on December 1st and you should end with "Merry Christmas!" on December 25th.

Next, cut out pieces of string that are equal in length. I used 6-inch pieces but you can use any length. Hole punch the top of each tag.

Tie even loops through each of the tags. I used a pencil to make sure that each loop I tied was the same length. You can do this by placing a pencil between the two ends of the string, tying a double knot around it, and then sliding the pencil out.

Then, use these strings to hang your tags up on the wall. It's up to you how you want to go about doing this. You can use clear tape washi tape, even push pins, if you have a bulletin board (don't ruin your wall with 25 push pin holes, hehe!). I hung mine up in a triangle shape so that it would look like a Christmas tree.

Now each morning when you wake up you can flip over a tag and you'll see how many days are left until Christmas!

I'm so excited for the holiday season to start and I hope this project has helped you get ready for it in a fun and crafty way!

Thanks for reading!