How to make a Christmas ornament Advent calendar

If you’ve never used an Advent calendar to count down to Christmas, you’re missing out! The calendars are a fun way to get into the holiday spirit by marking the days until Dec. 25 with a new little surprise gift or treat each day.

Most calendars start on Dec. 1, so if you’re up for making your own this year, now is a good time to start working on it. This Advent calendar from Home Depot is beautiful and will take about two hours to complete. You will need to first prepare a wooden board, which will take another two to four hours, but once that is done, the actual assembly of the calendar is pretty straightforward and simple.

Along with the board, you will need nails, paper tags, ornaments and ribbon. Because you won’t be tearing open cardboard doors and it doesn’t include anything perishable like chocolate or other candy, you can reuse the calendar year after year. Just make sure to store the ornaments in a safe place so they don’t get broken!

Take a look at the full instructions below.

Home Depot Christmas Ornament Advent Calendar

Difficulty: Easy
Duration: 1 hour

Materials: 

Prepared wooden board
24 nails
24 ornaments
24 paper key tags
Ribbon
Yardstick
Pencil

Instructions:

• Lay the board flat and lay the yardstick across the board.
• Make marks at 4, 8, 12 and 16 inches with the pencil.
• Continue to do this across each board.

2. Add nails

• Nail one nail in each of the spots you have measured and marked.
• You should end up with 24 nails in total.

3. Add dates

• Use the paper key tags to add dates to the calendar.
• Write out the numbers 1 through 24 on the tags.
• Attach the tags to the ornaments to coordinate with each day of Advent.

4. Hang the ornaments

• Attach the ornaments using ribbon in sequential order on your calendar. It is now ready to be hung!

If you’re not up for a holiday craft or would rather have a calendar that provides daily gifts, there are dozens to choose from this year. Aldi has a great selection of Advent calendars that includes everything from cheese or coffee for adults and a “My Friend Gnome” kit for kids.

If you’d like to toast to Christmas each night of December with some adult beverages, Aldi’s 24-count wine calendar is back this year, or you can buy a World of Wine countdown calendar from The Wall Street Journal that features wine from around the globe. Sam’s Club is also selling a 24 Days Of Spirits calendar that comes with 24 mini bottles of alcohol plus cocktail recipes.

Have you ever counted down to Christmas with an Advent calendar?