DIY advent calendar ideas (and what to put in each day)
Seven homemade advent calendars you can make from things already in the house, what to put behind each of the 24 doors, and a plan that follows December 2026 day by day.
A DIY advent calendar has two parts: the container and the 24 things inside it. You can make the container from envelopes, paper bags, toilet roll tubes or matchboxes, or buy an empty fill-your-own calendar and spend your effort on the fillers. This guide gives seven calendars to make, filler ideas by age and a day-by-day plan for December 2026, which starts on a Tuesday.
Make your own or fill your own: choose the container first
The container decides what fits. An envelope takes a note or a tea bag but not a bath bomb, and the drawers of a wooden calendar are often only a few centimetres across. Pick the container with the fillers in mind, not the other way round.
| Container | What fits | Make or buy | Works best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Envelopes on a string or branch | Flat things: notes, activity cards, stickers, tea bags, seed packets | Make, with 24 envelopes and 24 pegs | Adults and family activity calendars |
| Paper bags or mini sacks | Sweets, small toys, rolled-up socks | Make, or buy a set of 24 | Children |
| Toilet roll tubes | Sweets, hair clips, small figures | Make, then leave the glue to dry | Children over three |
| Matchboxes | Tiny things: a folded note, earrings, a coin | Make | Couples and adults |
| Wrapped books or parcels | Books and larger gifts | Wrap what you already have | Readers and bedtime routines |
| Wooden drawers | Whatever fits the smallest drawer | Buy empty, refill every year | Families who want a keepsake |
| Fabric or felt pockets | Soft or flat items, chocolates, notes | Buy empty, refill every year | Hanging on a door or a hook |
If you would rather skip the making and the filling, ready-filled calendars of every type, from chocolate to tea and toys, are in our advent calendars collection.
7 DIY advent calendar ideas to make at home
Each idea needs 24 of something, one for every day from 1 to 24 December. Make a 25th if you want a door for Christmas Day.
1. Toilet roll tube calendar
Start saving tubes in October, since you need 24. Glue a rectangle of fabric round each tube, wide enough to wrap it and long enough to stick out well past both ends, then glue a band of wrapping paper over the middle so the fabric shows at both ends. Once the glue is dry, fill the tube, tie both ends with yarn so it looks like a wrapped toffee and stick a number on the front.
To display it, glue the tubes together in short columns, letting each joint dry before you add the next tube, and add a ribbon loop to the top of each column. For a quicker version, fold the ends of each tube inwards to close it into a small box, number the backs and put all 24 in a bowl for children to rummage through.
2. Envelope or paper bag line
You need 24 envelopes or paper bags, 24 mini pegs and string. C6 envelopes (114 × 162 mm) hold an A4 sheet folded twice, which leaves room for a letter, a voucher or an activity card. Hung upright in two rows of 12 with 3 cm gaps, each row takes about 1.75 m of string, plus enough to tie off.
No wall space? Peg the envelopes to a bare branch standing in a vase, or along a banister. Paper bags take bulkier fillers: fold the top over twice and close it with the peg.
3. Matchbox calendar
Glue 24 empty matchboxes into a block of 4 by 6, or into a tree: rows of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 boxes make 21, and a stack of 3 makes the trunk. Cover the drawer fronts with wrapping paper and number them. The drawers take only tiny things, so this one suits adults: folded notes, stud earrings, a ring, a single truffle.
4. Book advent calendar
Wrap 24 books and number them: each one is that night’s bedtime story. They need not be new. Mix books from your own shelves that have not been read for a while with second-hand finds, and keep a Christmas story for the 24th.
5. Activity calendar
Write one thing to do together on a card for each day and seal it in an envelope. It costs next to nothing and works at any age. Put the quick activities on school nights and the longer ones at weekends.
- Cut paper snowflakes for the windows.
- Mix a batch of reindeer food for Christmas Eve.
- Walk or drive round the streets with the best lights.
- Write Christmas cards for the neighbours, or a letter to Santa.
- Bake and ice gingerbread.
- Make one new decoration for the tree.
- Film night with popcorn.
- Hot chocolate and a board game.
- Video call the grandparents and sing them a carol.
- Choose a toy or a tin to give to a food bank or a toy appeal.
For the craft days, our Christmas crafts for kids has easy ideas for all ages.
6. Parcels on a branch or the tree
Wrap 24 small gifts in brown paper, tie each one with a ribbon loop and a numbered tag, and hang them on a bare branch or on the Christmas tree. Keep them light so the branches do not sag, and hang the heaviest parcels close to the trunk.
7. A free online advent calendar
For family who live far away, build 24 slides in a free slide app such as Google Slides, one per day, each with a photo, a joke, a recipe or a short video message. Share the link on 1 December and add a slide each morning, or schedule 24 messages instead.
What to put in a DIY advent calendar
A split that keeps 24 days varied and the cost down: 8 small gifts, 8 treats and 8 things to do together. Put the gifts and activities on weekends and the treats on busy weekdays, when there is only time to open a door.
The Child Accident Prevention Trust warns that anything smaller than a 2p coin can choke a young child, and that round hard sweets can block the airway. Leave out small toys, hard sweets, and anything with batteries or parts that can break off.
For babies and toddlers
- Board books and bath books
- Chunky crayons and a sheet to colour
- Large bath toys and stacking cups
- A pot of bubbles for an adult to blow
- Photos of family members to name
- Activity cards: dance to a carol, a bubble bath, a walk to see the lights
For children from 3 to 10
- Stickers and temporary tattoos
- A mini figure, a toy car or an animal figure
- Hair clips and bobbles
- A chocolate coin or a mini bar
- Erasers, pencil toppers and a mini notebook
- A bouncy ball or a mini maze puzzle
- A few pieces of a jigsaw each day, so the picture is complete by Christmas
- A packet of seeds to sow in spring
- A note from the family elf
- A ticket for a film night or a later bedtime
For teenagers
- Lip balm, scrunchies or hair clips
- Novelty socks
- Phone accessories: a grip, a cable tidy, a screen wipe
- Trading cards or a pocket puzzle
- Their favourite sweets
- Vouchers for a lie-in, a takeaway night or control of the TV remote
For her
- A mini hand cream or a lip balm
- Nail varnish
- A sheet face mask or a bath salt sachet
- A scented tea light
- A tea bag or a hot chocolate sachet
- Stud earrings or a hair clip
- A truffle or a square of good chocolate
- A crystal or a packet of flower seeds
For him
- Coffee sachets or a tea bag
- A hot sauce sachet or a bag of jerky
- A pair of socks
- Golf tees
- A bottle opener or a keyring
- A beard oil sample
- Mints
- Dice, a pack of cards or a pocket puzzle
Free fillers for any age
- A joke or a riddle, with the answer behind the next door
- A clue to a treat hidden somewhere in the house
- A voucher: no washing-up, choose dinner, breakfast in bed
- An old family photo with its story written on the back
- A recipe card for something to make together
- One chapter of a story that carries on each day
Many stocking fillers are small enough for a pocket or a paper bag, so our list of stocking filler ideas doubles as a source of advent calendar fillers.
Plan your DIY advent calendar for December 2026
1 December 2026 is a Tuesday, so a 24-door calendar runs from a Tuesday to Christmas Eve on Thursday 24 December. That makes 18 weekdays and 6 weekend days: plan the fillers around them.
| Days | Dates | What to put in |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday mornings (17) | 1 to 4, 7 to 11, 14 to 18 and 21 to 23 December | Quick to open: a sweet, a sticker, a joke, a tea bag |
| Weekends (6) | 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20 December | Activities and the bigger gifts: baking, crafts, an outing to see the lights |
| Christmas Eve (1) | Thursday 24 December | Something for the evening: new pyjamas, reindeer food, a Christmas story |
| Optional 25th door | Friday 25 December | A thank-you note or the last piece of the jigsaw |
| Optional Advent Sunday start | Sunday 29 and Monday 30 November | Two extra doors, 26 in all to Christmas Eve |
Budget per door
Divide the total by the number of doors before you shop: £24 is £1 a door and £48 is £2. Free days stretch the budget: with 8 activity cards, £24 gives £1.50 to each of the other 16 doors.
When to fill it
- Buy non-food fillers from October and number them as you go, so the bigger ones land on weekends.
- Add chocolate and sweets last, on the weekend of 28 and 29 November, and check the best-before dates.
- Hang the calendar away from radiators, fairy lights and sunny windows, where chocolate softens.
- Keep a list of what sits behind each door, so a bigger gift does not end up on a school morning.
Buying an empty fill-your-own advent calendar
An empty calendar saves making the container and can be refilled every year. Count the compartments before you buy: in a Yahoo UK round-up of nine fill-your-own calendars, the number ran from 23 pockets to 25 drawers.
- Wooden drawers: sturdy and reusable, but the drawer size limits the fillers, so measure the smallest one.
- Fabric and felt pockets: they stretch around odd shapes, fold flat for storage and hang from a door or a hook.
- Numbered bags or boxes on a dowel or a line: the most room per day, and easy to rearrange.
- Light-up wooden calendars: some have an LED scene at the top, so check which batteries it takes.
Short on time? Mix bought and homemade
You do not have to fill all 24 doors yourself. A ready-filled calendar can cover the daily treat while your envelopes carry the notes and activities. For children, compare the toy, craft and science calendars in our kids advent calendars; for adults, the tea, coffee, puzzle, seed and bath calendars in our advent calendars for women.
Chocolate, beauty, tea and toy calendars sit side by side in the full advent calendar range, with the number of doors listed for each.
Frequently asked questions
What can you put in a DIY advent calendar?
Anything that fits the smallest compartment: sweets and chocolate, small toys, stickers, beauty minis, tea bags, notes and activity cards. Splitting the 24 days into 8 small gifts, 8 treats and 8 activities keeps it varied and holds the cost down. For a child under three, leave out hard sweets and anything smaller than a 2p coin, which the Child Accident Prevention Trust says can choke a young child.
Where can I buy an empty advent calendar to fill?
Empty wooden drawer calendars, felt and fabric pocket calendars and sets of 24 numbered bags or boxes are sold by craft and homeware shops and on Amazon.co.uk. Count the compartments, because some have 23 or 25, and measure the smallest one before you buy the fillers.
How do you make your own advent calendar?
Collect 24 containers such as envelopes, paper bags, toilet roll tubes or matchboxes, number them from 1 to 24, fill them and hang or stand them in order. A toilet roll tube calendar needs 24 saved tubes and time for the glue to dry before you fill it. Add any chocolate last so it stays fresh.
Is there a free way to create an online advent calendar?
Yes. Build 24 slides in a free slide app such as Google Slides, one per day, with a photo, a joke, a recipe or a short video, and share the link with the family. Scheduling 24 messages, one each morning, works too and costs nothing.
How many doors should a homemade advent calendar have?
24 doors cover 1 to 24 December, which in 2026 runs from Tuesday 1 December to Thursday 24 December. Add a 25th for Christmas Day, or start on Advent Sunday, 29 November 2026, which takes 26 doors to reach Christmas Eve.
How much should you spend on a DIY advent calendar?
Set a total and divide it by the number of doors: £24 comes to £1 a door and £48 to £2. Activity cards, jokes and vouchers cost nothing, so with 8 free days a £24 budget gives £1.50 to each of the other 16 doors.
What do you put in an advent calendar for adults?
Small things they will use: coffee sachets or tea bags, a mini hand cream, a scented tea light, socks, a hot sauce sachet or a single good chocolate. For a couple, date-night cards and vouchers for breakfast in bed or a takeaway night fill the weekend doors at no cost.
