Create Your Own Advent Calendar

There are so many Advent Calendars to choose from in stores and online. Some are simple and budget friendly and some are ornate and expensive calendars. But what if you don't see something you like? You spend hours online to find the perfect calendar and you just can't find one. Let me share with you my idea and Advent Calendar that I made and have been using for a couple of years now.

I made this Advent Calendar in 2020 but I wasn't excited with it. I looked all over Pinterest and the Internet, and searched through thousands of Advent Calendars.

Here's what I used to make my own Advent Calendar:

• Wood Board (

• White Acrylic Paint

• Green Acrylic Paint

• Small Wood Clothespins from the Dollar Tree

• Paint Brushes (Large sponge one and a small paintbrush for the clothespins)

• Twine

• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

• Pencil

• Super Fine Sharpie

• Staple Gun and Staples

• Small Advent Bags (These are the ones I bought, but unfortunately they're no longer available)

You can make your own Advent Calendar tags or you can search for a printable one. I wanted to find a printable one because I didn't want to think about making my own. So I hopped on Pinterest in 2021 and scrolled and scrolled until I fell in love with the tags down below. But now in 2024, I was nervous I wouldn't be able to find the woman responsible for making these darling Advent Calendar tags. I was determined and hopeful that they were still searchable.

And I did find them! Thank you Laura for your beautiful printable tags. Click here to download yours.

Don't forget to paint your board white, unless you want the natural wood style. Next, I painted the clothespins green on the front, back, and the sides. The next couple of pictures show a better view of how much I painted the clothespins.

Now comes the tedious part -- figuring out the distance for the clothespins.

Once all of the clothespins are dry, I began to pencil the words I wanted on my Advent Calendar. I should have written first before adding the clothespins but hindsight is 20/20.

A funny story about this. I wanted to write remembrance first and anticipation last, but my brain couldn't have words placed alphabetically incorrect. So anticipation went first.

The twine I have is small so I took three strands of the twine and braided it. The twine is stapled with a staple gun and for extra measures I also glue gunned the twine.

This is the finished product!

My kids alternate getting a bag, opening it, and then hand me to read what our activity is for the day. We don't always open the bags the same time every day during Advent. It depends on the activity because sometimes it's an evening activity. But the kids know we open one a day. In my next post, I'll show you what kind of activities we've done in the past. There was one year I was in the first trimester in my pregnancy and our Advent was a little bleh because I was bleh. My kids were young, so they didn't mind or notice. But I'm all for doing simple activities because the goal of Advent is not to go big. It's to help you and your children understand the importance of remembering Jesus' birth and anticipating His return.

Whether you already celebrate Advent or are thinking about it, I hope this post has been helpful. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back next week as I write about Advent activities.