DIY Advent Calendar

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I made this DIY advent calendar out of mostly felt from scratch and am excited to share it with you. I don’t know about you, but I get so excited to decorate for the holidays! November is a great time to start thinking about the types of decor that you want for the holiday season, and you have some time to MAKE some fun projects!

Why making Christmas Decor is great

1. Making your decor saves money! An advent calendar much more expensive if you were to by the same size and quality that you can make at home.
2. Homemade Christmas decor is satisfying! I think of all of the crafts that meant so much more to us because our mom or grandma made them. These crafts were way more nostalgic and more fun to keep for generations!
3. Making Christmas decor is FUN! With all of us needed to spend more time at home, binging Netlfix gets old after a while. New hobbies are a great way to help with anxiety, take a break from screen time, and have fun making something new and unique with your hands.

Last year I made this felt heirloom advent calendar just before December, and it was my FAVORITE Christmas decor item to put up this year! The large size of it is just magical, and each ornament has meaning to me and was crafted with care.

Here is the final advent calendar! It is 33″x52″ so the sheer size of this is amazing to instantly add a HUGE amount of Christmas cheer instantly!

At the start of December (or November if that’s when you start decorating for Christmas!), all of the ornaments will be in each pocket. On December 1st, you get to pull out the first ornament and hang it on the tree! Since the tree is covered with buttons sown onto it, all you have to do is hang the ornament on each button!

I made each of these ornaments out of felt, and it was very therapeutic for me! Thinking of different things or places that are meaningful to our family, and looking for inspiration online, I was able to draw them out in felt, fill with a little bit of doll stuffing for some added flare, and they are perfect to fit in each pocket!

Want to make your own DIY advent calendar?

If you want to see videos of my progress while making it with some how-tos, head over to my Instagram Advent Calendar Highlight!

We loved pulling my handmade felt advent calendar out with our Christmas Decor this year! We know that this will be an heirloom that hopefully our future children will love for years and years to come 🙂

Sounds totally doable, right? The fun part is that you can customize this however you want for your own style and home decor! Are you thinking about making one? I’d love to hear about it and answer any questions that you might have!