homemade advent calendar<br/> — those lovely roots

Last year’s advent calendars were super cute but SUPER time consuming and exhausting. I really wanted to do it again but only with a compromise: it had to be done in one day or less. Also, it had to be cheap. But it also had to be fun!

Cue… The Dollar Tree!

I got all of my supplies from there including the foam board and plastic shot glasses. I have only two stores in my small town. A Dollar Tree and Walmart. I don’t even consider Walmart anymore when it comes to crafting or making really anything for that matter.

Lay out 24 plastic shot glasses on the foam board in a Christmas tree shape. Trace and cut.

Wrap the tree in your choice of wrapping paper (this part was tricky, I used hot glue instead of tape to hold it together in the back). It still tore in a few places but luckily wasn’t very visible.

Glue all of the shot glasses onto the tree board…

This is optional but create some fun Christmas ideas to incorporate into your month. Remember not to over do it since your kids will be holding you to it (learning from experience)!

Christmas candy tip! I wanted to use some of the loose candy because the Dollar Tree has so much variety but quickly realized there was no good way to secure it so I stuck with wrapped candy.

Not only does my nine year old always love playing with these sticky men but they fit perfectly in the shot glass when folded.

Wrap all of the candy and toys into small pieces of tissue paper. This way they are secured into something, they are hidden and also can be glued into the cup for further security.

I used wrapped Reeses, chocolate krispy coins, gum balls, bouncy balls, and bit o’ honey.

After you have all of the candy and toys secured, take your wrapping paper and cut or stamp out into small circles. I had my Uchida for this which made it super quick and easy but if you don’t have one then just trace around something slightly larger than the shot glass and cut it out.

Glue each circle onto each shot glass.

Also I got some tiny circle label stickers from the Dollar Tree and wrote 24 numbers on them.

For day 24 I always like to add something extra special. It needed to be very small. They had $2 bills at my local bank. I wrapped it around a tiny toy car. Aww, sweet nostalgia. I remember getting a $2 bill from my grandma years ago for my birthday. I think I still have it. Nostalgia and meaning that will probably only be appreciated by me since my kids are almost impossible to impress. It must be a generation thing… (eye roll)