Every year, the anticipation of Christmas is great. The smell of freshly baked cookies is in the air, the snow is falling softly outside and the first door on the Advent calendar is already eagerly waiting for you to open it. So you have a reason to be happy every day in December. The joy is even greater if you make your own Advent calendar with a lot of dedication and give it to your loved ones as a gift.

A homemade Advent calendar is a gift that comes from the heart. By putting some thought and effort into it, you show your loved ones how much they mean to you. There are no limits to your creativity when putting together the contents and packaging.

The Advent calendar must be ready by November 30 at the latest. The following plan will help you make sure nothing stands in the way:

How to plan your Advent calendar in 5 steps.
These steps lead to success.

Whether young or old, everyone looks forward to opening a new door with excitement in the morning. An Advent calendar knows no age limit. Give one to your children, your parents, your partner or your best friends, for example.

When planning, consider who you are filling the Advent calendar for, because not everyone enjoys the same things.

Children particularly enjoy opening a little door every day.

If you are not sure what the person you are giving the gift to likes, don’t be afraid to ask discreetly. After all, even the most elaborate Advent calendar is useless if the person doesn’t like it. Maybe you could simply use a wish list for your loved ones.

Under 10 euros, no expenses at all, or as much money as it takes? Set your budget before you start planning the contents and packaging.

How much you spend on an Advent calendar should depend on the person who receives it. For example, you can budget more money for family and friends than for distant relatives or colleagues. If you give each other Advent calendars in a group, a maximum amount is usually set. A free option is a digital Advent calendar. You can find a helpful template here.

Once you have determined an approximate amount, you can start with the further planning.

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. How you fill the Advent calendar yourself depends above all on what the recipients might like.

The chocolate Advent calendar is without doubt the classic among Advent calendars. Whether as a simple bar, poured into a Christmas shape or as a fine praline, the taste is convincing! If you want to make someone happy who doesn’t want to go without sweets during the Advent season, you can hit their taste with treats you have put together yourself and make your own Advent calendar in a varied way.

Filling an Advent calendar with chocolate is a classic.
Decorating the chocolate yourself makes the Advent calendar unique.

Don’t limit yourself to just one sweet, but vary. From fruit gums and muesli bars to gingerbread, you can buy anything your heart desires. You can also fill the Advent calendar with homemade cookies or hot chocolate on a stick. It’s all in the mix!

A culinary journey around the world: this Advent calendar is a particular treat for amateur chefs. Give packaged spices, fine oils or exotic spice pastes along with a suitable recipe to cook.

However, buying 24 different spices is expensive. First look around your home to see which spices you can spare a small portion of. Even everyday spices can be used to prepare a variety of tasty dishes.

For people who are artistically active, a craft or painting set that you put together yourself is ideal. Let your loved one’s creativity run wild or add crafting instructions that make it possible to work on the project a little every day.

Make children happy by giving them craft supplies.

Possible small items you can fill the Advent calendar with include pens, tubes of paint, glitter glue, chalk, washi tape or stencils.

Are you a master of words and do you like to craft sentences? Then hide a handwritten Christmas message, a poem you wrote yourself or an inspiring quote behind the little doors.

Oh, how nice it is when it’s Christmas. I only wish it were Christmas a little more often. – Astrid Lindgren

When filling an Advent calendar, especially for children, the following applies: the more exciting, the better. Prepare something for your child that they will enjoy for longer. For example, a puzzle or Lego set in which a section is put together every day.

Lego sets are also available in Advent calendar form.

An admittedly challenging idea is to design a riddle in which the child gets one step closer to the solution every day. Like a kind of scavenger hunt, you can hide clues around the house and make the Advent calendar interactive.

Would you like to give something that comes from the heart and that you have put a lot of work and passion into? Then homemade gifts are the perfect choice. Decorate mugs or Christmas tree baubles, for example, and surprise your loved ones with unique presents.

Give the gift of time together in the form of vouchers, for example for long walks in the snow, a relaxed cooking evening or a useful sewing machine course.

Your gift will seem particularly unique if you combine it with a symbolic object. Instead of writing the surprise on a piece of paper, how about a carrot as a symbol for building a snowman or a golden ticket announcing a movie night together?

A mixture of different products keeps up the suspense until the very last second.

24 ideas for filling your Advent calendar.

The contents are one thing, the right packaging is another. To make sure the surprise works every day anew, the gift should be wrapped securely, away from prying eyes.

When choosing the packaging, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  • Should all the packaging look the same?
  • Is the sustainability of the calendar important to me?
  • Which crafting tools do I need?
  • Where should the Advent calendar be placed?

So how should you wrap the gifts? First of all, that depends on whether you prefer a uniform style. If the contents are different sizes, this is immediately noticeable in paper bags. If you don’t want people to be able to guess what is behind the door from its size, cardboard boxes are suitable.

If you make your own Advent calendar and all the contents (e.g., chocolate bars) are roughly the same size, you can paint toilet paper rolls and use them as packaging.

The classic packaging is the paper bag.
Wrapping is easiest with paper bags.

Invest in sturdy material such as cloth bags or wooden boxes, or use tins and jars you already have to wrap your gifts. On the one hand, this means there is less waste, and on the other hand, you can reuse the packaging next year.

To give the packaging the finishing touch, you should label it with the numbers from 1 to 24. Paint, punch out, glue: whatever you like is allowed.

You can also add further embellishments if you wish. Depending on how you want to design your packaging, the following tools may be helpful: scissors, glue, pens, stickers, adhesive tape, stapler, cord.

If you are preparing the Advent calendar for someone in your household, you should also think about the presentation. After all, an Advent calendar works best when it is constantly present, so that the suspense of what is behind the next door is almost unbearable.

If the packages are light, you can hang them on a wall with a string or coat hangers, for example. Heavy packages or jars can be lined up or stacked on a flat surface. It looks particularly impressive if you attach the packages to a banister.

There is a lot to get and little time. To make sure you get everything you need, it makes sense to create a shopping list. Research early enough where you can get what. Especially if you do a lot of crafting yourself, you should think not only about the materials but also about the tools.

Especially if you make several Advent calendars yourself, things can quickly become chaotic. The customizable online planner from SeaTable helps you with your preparations. Enter what you need for your Advent calendars and see at a glance which quantities you need to buy and behind which door you are hiding which gifts.

Even if you fill a dozen private Advent calendars, you will never lose track thanks to the different views, which are organized by person (tables 2 & 3).

A digital Advent calendar is both sustainable and creative. If you want to make someone happy who lives far away, this alternative is the right choice for you. You can send pictures, videos or texts as digital messages. Such a calendar is also suitable for a larger group of people, as the contents are easy to duplicate.

You can use SeaTable to create your virtual Advent calendar. Design a little door for each day, create a gallery with the help of an app and make your lovingly selected content easily available via a link.

Private Advent Calendar

If you would like to use SeaTable to create analog and/or digital Advent calendars, simply register for free with your email address. You can find the free template here.

TAGS: Everyday Life & Leisure