DIY Envelope Advent Calendar: Countdown to Christmas with Creativity
Get ready for a crafty and joyous Christmas season with our step-by-step guide on creating a DIY envelope advent calendar.
The anticipation leading up to Christmas day fills me with joy; it's just as exciting as the event itself. There's nothing quite like an advent calendar to kickstart the festive countdown. Homemade versions are my favourite because they allow me to curate what goes inside.
I've included delightful chocolate treats and cheesy Christmas jokes for each day in my DIY paper envelope advent calendar.
Crafting this calendar is a breeze. I used Christmas-themed craft paper for mine, but you have endless possibilities: Upcycle Christmas wrapping paper, old book pages, or even maps to create your unique version.
The joy of personalization knows no bounds! Get ready to embrace the holiday spirit and create cherished memories with this simple yet delightful DIY project.
DIY Paper Envelope Advent Calendar
The Free DIY Paper Envelope Template
- Envelope template: You can download this one here (Envelope template) and cut your own out of cardboard.
Other Materials
- Christmas paper can be craft paper, old wrapping paper or even Christmas paper from magazines. I use a combination of all these.
- Glue stick, scissors, & Christmas twine
- Mini craft pegs.
- Number stencils
- Wooden coat Hanger.
How to Make an Envelope Advent Calendar
Step 1: Make the mini paper envelopes with whatever Christmas paper you have chosen. Use the template for this. You will need 25 envelopes or 24 if you are a 24-day advent calendar person.
I have found a big debate on whether advent calendars should be 25 or 24 days. I think you should just do it for however many days you like. I've even seen shop-bought advent calendars go up to New Year's Eve!
Step 2: Next, stencil, draw or paint a number on each envelope 1 - 25. Then fill them with treats and jokes.
Step 3: When all the envelopes are made, decide how you want to hang them. I spray-painted an old wooden hanger red and then hung my envelopes from this using craft pegs and twine. Doing it this way enabled me to hang it easily on the back of the boys' bedroom doors.
You can of course just hang them on the string like bunting.
You may have noticed I have hung my numbered envelopes in random order; that's just a personal preference. Part of the fun of an advent calendar is hunting for the right day. Also, in life, I generally err on the side of randomness rather than order and symmetry.
What do you put in your advent calendars?
As children, we used to have those paper calendars where you'd open the window each day to reveal a different picture; there wasn't a bar of chocolate in sight. Now there would be a mutiny if my boys didn't have a daily sweet treat in their calendars. But I think they like the cheesy jokes more, even though they won't admit it.
One of the best advent calendars I had was from my husband, and every day there was a different alcoholic chocolate truffle.
If you're a bit short of Christmas jokes, the Telegraph compiled a list of the best 50.
Other Christmas Craft Ideas
With three boys in our home, we have more than one advent calendar, each one different. If you are looking for more ideas for DIY advent calendars, you should check out my tin can upcycled advent calendar or my jeans pocket handmade advent calendar.
You can use any leftover wrapping paper to make some gift bags for Christmas.
You might like some of my other Christmas crafts:
25 Handmade Christmas Advent Calendars
Giant Christmas Felt Letters
Upcycled Felt Garland
Christmas Elf on the Shelf
I love it
Thank you so much, it is fun to make
That's clever. I made a very basic similar advent calendar for my husband years ago (he felt he was missing out when the kids were opening their's each morning!) and just cut old manilla envelopes in half thinking it would be a one off funny thing for us to do. We used that same tatty old thing for YEARS! I think an upgrade might be in order, he would love one like this.
This will be one the the features at Handmade Monday later on today 🙂
Thank you, Julie that's a lovely story. Look forward to seeing the feature.
@Claire Armstrong, thank julie
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Claire this is so simple to make and yet so adorable. That is what Christmas should be all about. Making crafts with the family and then enjoying the holidays. Not running around spending money ton tons of things others may or may not want. You obviously have many fond memories from your advent calender's.
Thank you Mary. That is my favourite part of Christmas is the making. I would love it if everyone made their gifts. I always have loads of things I want to make at Christmas, I'm working on about 6 different crafts at the moment.
I really enjoy all the variations of diy advent calendars. They are so much nicer than their commercial counterparts. Love this one with the various colours.
Thank you Leanna, I always love a bit of colour.
Claire I love this too and I could actually make this 🙂
Thank you, it is really simple and fun to do.
Adorable! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm--pinned & tweeted!
Thank you!
It's so lovely to take the advent calendar back to basics isn't it? The ones that the shops sell seem to be getting more and more extravagant, I love the idea of some chocolate and little joke to start the day. Thank you for linking up to #HomeEtc X
Thank you, we love homemade advent calendars in this household.
I love the way you hung it over the fireplace mantel with the pins - beautiful and festive. Also, I like that you put them in random order! And it's a great way to use up old Xmas scrapbook paper....so I can finally buy some new ones!
Thank you so much. I like to have them in the random order as I think looking for the right day is all part of the fun.
Super cute and creative! In order to keep my curious 8 year old still believing in Santa, I need to make a new Advent calendar (brought my our Elf on the Shelf) this year. Great idea! Visiting from Sweet Inspiration party.
Thank you, I know from my boys 8 is when the doubts about Santa creeps in.
This is such a cute advent calendar! My kids and I made one a few years ago and it always adds something special to the holidays. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, we love it when it's time to get out the advent calendars it really puts us into the festive mood.
I think making your own calendar is a great idea. My son doesn't eat chocolate so we always need something homemade that we can fill with alternatives #homeetc
Homemade advent calendars are great you can fill them with all sorts of fun things. When my boys were little I used to put lego in the pockets.