20 DIY Advent Calendar Ideas 

For several years I would make envelops and hand my single eyeshadow collection to my husband to pop into clam shells, seal in the envelops, and add Advent stickers for the days. It was a very cool way to use my singles and I was always surprised (and challenged) to make eye looks with that day's color. At the end of it, I would have a pretty cool custom palette I used to close out the year.

so, i was considering the alcohol advent calendar, my thoughts is to get the big bottles over the course of the year, split with friends if you all love it, and then go opshopping for lil bottles or cool decanters and make a 12 day lootcrate style, wrap for others and gift at the start of december. that way there's the cool choices by others and the time to sample the drinkydrinks, yeeaahhh the booze be expensive but depends on the online retailer too, sometimes they have deals. i mentioned this with friends as its a way to split costs, do stuff with friends and enjoy a drinky together - bonus if you go picnics, day trips and hang out together~

I’m making a dog one with toys and treats for my dog and a cat one for my cats. On the 25/12 they get a special present. My dog gets a homemade jacket and a new frisbee. My cats get a new da bird and some crocheted toys. One of my friends is into ‘herbs’ and last year did a herb themed one.

I just had a BRILLIANT idea! For the coffee/tea/cocoa calendar, get you a group of friends and have a party! Each person bring a box or 2 of each. Swap your calendars so a friend fills yours, then go home with your calendar and not a billion bags of tea/coffee/cocoa! Like a cookie swap but better!

My friend and I are swapping puzzle advent calendars this year, so it's a surprise what the puzzle is

All your advent calendar content over the years inspired me to do an advent calendar for myself for the first time ever! And of course, I did a DIY beauty advent calendar from all the free samples I got this year. I have everything from fragrances to a mini blush. I am super excited!

It would be cute to combine some of these. Coffee/tea, books and snacks. That way you really don’t know which type of item it even is.

I make my husband an advent calendar every year bc I’ve never seen a pre-made one he’d use. It’s mostly sample size shaving soaps and creams that he wants to try without buying the full size but then I throw in random things that I wouldn’t put in his regular stocking (gum, eyeglass cleaning wipes, etc.). The first year he thought it was weird, now he’ll point out things he wants!

I also 1 year, had a large Xmas gift bag under the tree and every day the kids took turns seeing what was inside it. 1 day I had xmas bath bombs, 1 day had xmas activity books, 1 day had the xmas electronic toys, etc. Stuff I would get them to do before xmas anyway, but it had to come up in the calendar before they could do it.

I might make a lipstick advent with my stash and then make myself use them every day when I open them. So also sample the stash and makeup challenge too 🤔

I do a variation of this for rhe whole year: I have a bunch of old ipsy bags on hand and I do my own monthly "surprise" bag filled with abt 3-5 small/sample items. The bags are picked at random so it's always a surprise. This keeps me from adding to my collection.

I loved yours you did last year with the mini stockings so I decided to do one similar to that for my daughter. I’m going to hang the mini stockings on a small tree. I have been buying things here and there that were on sale. Things like skincare or makeup. Or even some jewelry. I always buy her an advent calendar but I think she will love my homemade one because it’s more catered to what she actually likes and needs. I saw one in Costco that was for small children that had books. I thought that was a good idea. But like you said you could go to a thrift store or in the U.S. the dollar tree has decent books especially children’s books. We also have a Christmas themed puzzle advent calendar we got last year and the pieces are numbered so we are going to use it again. We loved it last year.

All great ideas! ❤️

I’m making an advent calendar for my mum, rn and for everything too big to put in the box, I’ve painted a little card of the item to put in the advent calendar and wrapped the actual present.

For a book advent calendar, instead of buying new you could ask someone to pick 25 books from your to be read pile! (I know I've deffo got enough 😅) or you could add all your books to a generator and have a go each day 😊

Thank you so much for the tips!❤ how cute and fun!

I don't drink, but they make little tiny alcohol bottles (like the ones you get on planes). They sell them at the check out line at my grocery, but I'm sure there's different laws in different places.

I would love a book advent calander.....I read on avg 8 books a month so having 24 would be great for me

If your item is too big to fit into the advent calendar then you could write it on a note and tuck that into the calendar and put the item away until it is picked out

I feel like a video game Calender could be a lot of fun if you already have quite a few. I've been trying to finish up some small, cheap games on my switch so I think writing down 24 games and popping them in a Calender could be amazing. This could be down with movies, music etc too

Hey! I just realized my first trip to Sephora last week and I didn’t get a sample 🥺

For a tea advent calendar, T2 sell variety packs of their most popular teas. So you can get a box with like 10 different single tea bags to try. Saves having tonnes of tea boxes around for the advent calendar 😊

When I was in elementary school we made advent paper chains. The links were made from red and green construction paper and decorated each link with stickers and glitter etc. and we took them home Thanksgiving break, at home every day starting Dec 1st you were supposed to remove a link leading up to Christmas. It's a fun craft I want to do with my goddaughter.

the sock advent reminds me of what my mum and sister did for my dad's 60th birthday. They brought 30 pairs of socks and and wrapped each sock individually! They got very creative with the wrapping🤣

Lol, one year I let the kids decorate the tree, pretty much on their own (small children) and I had to intervene because the tree started falling over with most of the decorations all on one side

Great video

noodles every day is crazy, but ive seen someone make a pasta one, each day was a dry ingredient to try and guess what the recipe was and every 7 days was a list and a grocery gift card

💜💜💜tfs💜💜💜

❤😊