Advent is a time of expectance, excitement, and preparation ahead of the celebrations of the Nativity of Jesus in the Christian calendar. It is also a time when excited children open a door on their Advent calendars every day, usually to retrieve small chocolates, and gifts or uncover traditional Nativity images.
After Christmas, millions of exhausted Advent calendars are simply discarded. This year, why not invest the time in creating your own Advent calendar out of small tins, matchboxes, or even a cake tray?
Here we will show you how to create a magical, reusable Advent calendar for the whole family to enjoy. Unfortunately, chocolates are not included.
By making your own magnetic Advent calendar, you can create any design you wish on the items you choose to store your 24 treats, making it completely unique. You can include any treats or gifts you wish (it doesn’t have to be chocolate) and you can arrange them in any way you like.
One of the best ideas we were given by one of our customers was to include a Christmas activity for each day such as watching a Christmas film or baking some Christmas treats. Hopefully, the following ideas will give you all the inspiration you need.
How To Make A Cake Tray Advent Calendar
- Cake tray or muffin tray with 24 holes (not aluminum as magnets won’t stick to it). We got ours from Amazon for just £6.99.
- Two A4 flexible self-adhesive magnetic sheets for creating your windows.
- A further A4 flexible self-adhesive magnetic sheet for the reverse if you wish to magnetically attach your calendar to a metal surface such as your fridge door.
- Sharp scissors.
- Your choice of treats, gifts, or activities – one for each day.
1. Take your cake tray and measure the distance from the center of the space between two holes, to halfway between the next adjacent hole.
2. Create your 24 circular windows, one for each day, to the dimensions taken from your tray on paper or card.
3. Stick your designs to the self-adhesive magnetic sheets.
4. Cut out your circular designs and stick them to your tray covering each hole.
5. Collect your treats together and hide one behind each window.
6. Apply an A4 self-adhesive magnetic sheet to the back of the tray and fix the completed calendar to a steel surface such as your fridge.
How to make a Favor Tin the Advent Calendar
What you need:
- 24 small round favor tins. We used ones that measured 60mm in diameter by 30mm deep from Amazon for £0.49 each.
- Paper or card.
- Craft glue.
- Scissors.
- One A4 sheet of 54 30mm self-adhesive magnetic dots.
- Your choice of treats, gifts, or activities – one for each day.
- Measure the diameter of the lid on your tins and draw out 24 circles to this diameter on your paper or card.
2. Cut out your designs and stick one on each lid.
3. Peel off one self-adhesive magnetic dot at a time and stick it onto the bottom of a tin. Repeat this for every tin and leave them all on one side while the lids and magnets dry.
4. Collect your treats together and hide one in each tin.
5. Arrange them on your fridge or other steel surface and open one each day to enjoy.