In the last couple of years we had been getting the girls advent calendars (mostly to help stop the youngest for bugging us everyday it tomorrow was Christmas lol) and I wanted to do something a little different this year. Most of the ones we get a filled with chocolate and I thought it would be fun to make my own advent calendar and fill it with toys for the kids. When I saw the Scalloped Treat Box from Lawn Fawn I knew right away that was the box I was going to use. It would be a good size to fit just about anywhere in the house and it was not going be easy for the kids to peek inside with out us knowing. Now that I had the idea of what I was going to do I knew my biggest problem was going to be figuring out what to put in side.
I decided to have half the boxes in red and the other half green and the add the opposite color number to the boxes. I used Lawn Fawn Finley's 123's dies for the numbers and just cut them out of the scrap card stock left over from cutting out the boxes. Cutting out the boxes did not take as long as I thought it was going to since I had to cut out 48 pieces. But it was a little boring even though I was sitting in my living room watching some TV. By the time I was done my arm was still making the cranking motion any time I lifted it lol. Once the boxes where all die cut out I used some score tape to put the pieces together.
Once I had the boxes filled and put together I had to figure out the best place to put them. The only place that made any since to me was around the TV. I wanted to hang them on the wall but didn't think they would hold up well, if this went over well with the kids and the boxes held up I was hoping to do this next year too, but we don't have any other flat surface other then on the TV itself. This worked well to a point, the boxes stayed up there nicely facing the way you see them in the picture but the kids wanted to turn the with the number facing await to they could see it counting down. We had a few boxes fall behind the TV.
Now I'm sure your wondering what I came up with to fill these cuties. I had realized that I needed to find something small that I can add two of in one box because I was not going to be making 48 boxes so each of my kids had their own set (love my kids but no lol). So after walking the toy aisles with my kids (in the hopes of getting a idea of what they would like most for Christmas) I decide to go with a mix Tsum Tsums and Shopkins. Both of my kids just love those and they are small enough that you can fit two in one box. Now I will say this is not a cheap advent calendar but I knew I would not need to fill their stockings and since the Tsum Tsums came in 3 to a pack or 9 in a pack I would be saving some money there instead of buying a ton of mystery ones (although thinking about that now that could be fun too) and shopkins you can either buy the mystery ones which come with 2 to 3 in a pack or you can get on of the big sets and save there. I bought a few of the mystery packs only because I was trying to go with a Tsum Tsum theme but they didn't have enough different packs.
The kids loved seeing what they could end up with and that there was a mix of two of their favorite little toys in there. I would call this advent calendar a huge win for me and can't wait to do it again next year (I might even start shopping for what will go inside now). I can see this being a new family tradition. I hope this give you guys some great ideas to make your own fun advent calendars. Thank you all for joining me and have a safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Happy Crafting
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