The Tiny Marmalade Co.: DIY Advent Calendar (with free printable!)

I´ll tell you what. I haven't started my Christmas shopping.

I am what the experts call a last minute Christmas Shopper. Or a Extreme Christmas Shopper. I always leave it for the last minute. In other words, I love Christmas but I hate Christmas shopping.

I hate everything about shopping at Christmas that it´s possible to hate. Starting with the slow crawl into the city centre, the crowds, the heat of the shops, the endless loop of Christmas pop songs and then the slow crawl out of the car park and city centre to get home and that's before you've had to torture yourself with the food shops at the supermarket.

But being a Extreme Christmas shopping is not always easy, and buying presents at the petrol station is not always a good idea. Even if the car freshener smells delicious.

This is why a couple of years ago I started to make my own cards and presents. And this year I´d like to share with you what I've done. A completely absolutely extra special Advent Calendar using recycled tiny jam jars.

WHAT DO YOU NEED

24 Empty Tiny Jars with their lids
Foam double sided adhesive tape
24 Tiny treats, toys or activities
Printable with 24 circles with numbers CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
1 Timber board

WHAT DO YOU DO

Put some foam double sided adhesive tape at the bottom of each jar. Stick them to the timber board. Trick: check you will have enough space to close and open the lid!

Put one tiny treat, toys or activity inside each jar. Tip: if you´re doing the advent calendar for children, check you put the "long" activities in a weekend.

Some of the activities I have included are:

- You choose a film to watch today.
- Today you choose what's for dinner.
- We will visit Santa Grotto this afternoon.

Stick the numbers to the lids and close the jars. You can set the numbers randomly or in order. As my 4 years old is learning to count I decided to put the numbers in the right order.