You may have seen our article DIY Activity Advent Calendar, this post is going to explain in more detail exactly how to make a DIY activity advent calendar. We kept it simple, using a Christmas cardstock to keep it Christmasy. This simple way of construction is perfect if you are short on time but still want to make an advent calendar that the kids will love.

Each day the kids get to turn over the matching date and discover what the fun activity of the day is. There are 32 activities to choose from to add to your advent calendar so plenty of variety to choose from. Or get creative and come up with your own!

There is no wrong way to construct your calendar, you can get as creative as you like! We love the DIY advent calendars that are made using little boxes that store treats and activities inside. Today we are showing you how to keep it super quick and simple which also helps to keep the budget down! Treats, of course, are very exciting but we think your children will get just as much joy from the family-friendly activities as lots of little gifts. One of the activities that you can select is, there is something special under the tree for you, so be sure to include that one if you are wanting to include a physical gift as well as activities. Gifts or not the kids are sure to love discovering the fun daily activity and all of that extra special family time.

How To Make A DIY Activity Advent Calendar

The Printables

Ok, so first things first you will need to head over to our article DIY Activity Calendar for a Christmas activity calendar or here for our Stay At Home Activity Advent Calendar for a fun during the year stay-at-home activity calendar. You will find our FREE DIY activity advent calendar printables over there. All the numbers you need as well a range of fun activities.

Activities like- Make Hot Chocolate. Kids Cook Dinner and Go Out Tonight and Look At The Stars.

If there is an activity that you would love to do with the kids that aren’t on our list then make your own notes to add. You can do this by either handwriting them or do it on the computer. We have used Canva to make this printable. Canva has a free to use option and is very easy to use.

Construction

So now you should have the printable printed. The next step is to cut out the numbers and activities. Try to be a bit tidier than me! I was in a bit of a hurry to get this all done before our girls came home from school so it would be a surprise for them.

Have a look through the activities and decide what ones you would like to use and which ones to leave out.

Next glue all of the numbers onto cardstock with a glue stick. We used Christmas cardstock by Craft Smith, as it is the perfect thickness for all sorts of crafting activities. You can keep all of the patterns the same or use plain cardstock. I went for different patterns as I that is what our girls would like. Did you notice that one of the papers has cute gold llamas? Miss 8 is llama obsessed so I had to buy this paper pad when I saw it!

Cut out the numbers. I used a combination of a craft guillotine and sharp scissors. The guillotine makes it much faster to get all of the cutting done. The one we have is a compact guillotine so it couldn’t cut the large cardstock paper until I had cut it down in size with scissors. Don’t worry if you don’t have a guillotine, scissors will still do the trick.

Now glue one activity to the back of each number. Think about when you would like to do each activity and pick a suitable date. For example, I wanted the, there is something under the tree for you activity to be towards the start of December and the, watch a Christmas movie to be on Christmas eve.

Displaying

Your cards are now ready to go! I like the idea of keeping them loose in a pile and flipping over a new one each day. There is no way that in our family we wouldn’t lose or damage the cards so I opted to tie them to a ribbon and display them on the wall.

To do this, use a hole-punch and punch a single hole on each card. Onto each card attach a piece of string, yarn or ribbon. Tie each number in order to a long single piece of ribbon. I found this easiest to do with the long piece of ribbon attached to the wall.

Other ways of displaying your DIY Activity Advent Calendar is to attach the number to multiple lengths of ribbon and hang it in stages one length below the other. Attach ribbon to a large frame or hang from a branch or driftwood. Put the activities into small bags and attach the numbers to each bag. We would absolutely love to see your finished activity advent calendar so please send us through a photo if you do make one!

This post contains affiliate links. These links add no cost to you but we earn a small commission through linked sales which help with the running costs of diyThought. Thank you for your support!