At what age is an Advent calendar suitable for children?

With an Advent calendar you sweeten your children's pre-Christmas season. With every little door your little ones open day by day, the big day comes ever closer. This increases the anticipation for Christmas with children equally among young and old.

Many parents wonder, however, when their little one is ready for their first Advent calendar. A homemade Advent calendar has the great advantage that you can decide on the contents yourselves and it can be tailored exactly to the needs and preferences of your children. Toddlers and babies enjoy Christmas-themed toys or picture books that you can look at and flip through together.

Older children, by contrast, love craft supplies, stickers, or treats that make the time until Christmas and the long-awaited present opening pass more quickly and increase the anticipation for the big day.

A general age recommendation does not exist when making an Advent calendar. You know best whether your child is already ready for a calendar or whether you'd prefer to make the wait for the Christ Child even more enjoyable for your little ones through Christmas stories or other ideas and activities. Nevertheless, even babies already love unwrapping and truly enjoy discovering the small gifts together with you. If you'd rather buy an Advent calendar for Christmas, it's best to choose a model with age-appropriate contents. For babies and toddlers it should not contain small parts that could be accidentally swallowed. Most calendars indicate an appropriate age recommendation that provide you with a good guideline.

Overview: materials and supplies for making an Advent calendar

Making an Advent calendar yourself is neither particularly elaborate nor expensive. With just a few materials that you often already have at home, you can make a great calendar that will make children's eyes light up. Now we'll show you which materials you generally need to make most of the ideas:

You will need these materials for crafting:

• craft scissors

• glue/adhesive

• pens & paints

• colored cardboard

• threads, yarn & ribbon

• wrapping paper

• Decorative materials & embellishments like stickers, glitter & co.

• Cardboard tubes, paper bags, mason jars, coffee cups, matchboxes, etc., as

• small gift parcels

• a clothes hanger to hang it up

Our four favorite craft tutorials for Advent calendars – creative ideas & inspirations

So that you can start the crafting fun right away, we will now show you four beautiful and easy-to-implement instructions for crafting an Advent calendar.

Advent calendar made from toilet paper rolls

Materials:

• 24 toilet paper rolls

• pens

• glue

• colored cardboard

• scissors

• cotton wool

Description and instructions

An Advent calendar made from old toilet paper rolls is not only quickly and easy to make – you also upcycle old materials with this idea.DIY upcycling idea lets your creativity run free.

You can keep it very simple by painting the rolls in bright colors and numbering them. Store the gifts in the respective rolls and seal the openings with cotton wool, to maintain the anticipation for the contents and until Christmas.

If you want to get even more creative, cut out Christmas motifs from colored cardboard such as Christmas trees, reindeer, Santa Clauses and angels and glue them onto the toilet paper rolls. With the cotton wool you can not only seal the openings, but also glue a bushy beard onto Santa or create the hair of angels.

Also a Christmas village made of colorful little houses can be beautifully crafted. For this, cut out small elements like doors and roof crowns from craft board or paper and thus transform the 24 rolls into little houses, which in the end form a whole town. For the base, cut small circles from cardboard and fix them to the bottom edge of the rolls with glue. The tops of the rolls are filled again with cotton wool to hide the contents.

Advent calendar on a coat hanger

Materials:

• coat hanger

• 24 clothespins

• gift ribbon/string

• wrapping paper

• scissors

• adhesive tape

• marker for numbering

• copper or gold spray (optional)

Description and instructions

• With the help of a coat hanger you can make a great Advent calendar! For this you need a coat hanger, 24 clothespins and the gifts that you wrap nicely and number.

• After wrapping, clip the clothespins onto the hanger. To each clip you now attach a gift using a string or ribbon attachedIf you want an even

• more festive look for your Advent calendar, spray it before filling with copper or gold spray from the hardware store.You can now attach the finished Advent calendar to the wall with a nail or let it dangle from the ceiling with a hook. This way the gifts are not only well wrapped, the calendar itself is also a lovely decoration for Christmas.

• Advent calendar with small gift bags

thin cardboard (alternatively paper bags)

Materials:

• gift ribbon

• glue

• scissors

• pens

• hole punch

• Stickers, glitter or other decorations (optional

• stapler (optional)

• Another nice idea is an Advent calendar made of small gift bags that you

Description and instructions

with a little skill can easily make yourself. To make the bags you either need thin cardboard or

• old paper bags from the supermarket, which you want to upcycle. Turn the bags inside out so the unprinted side of the paper will be on the outside later.You can find various instructions and templates on the internet for the best way to fold a small gift bag out of the paper. If you want it to go a bit faster, take a

• stapler to help, simply fold over the ends of the little bags and attach a clip to hold them together.After the little bags are filled, close the top opening with ribbon by punching a hole with the hole punch and threading and knotting the ribbon. Now only the numbering and decorations are missing. With pens, glitter and other decorating materials you can

• let loose to your heart's content and customize the Advent calendar.Place the finished little gift bags

• in a small basket – preferably mixed up, so your little explorers have even more fun searching for the right door.Advent calendar with cardboard houses

colored cardboard

Materials:

• felt-tip pens

• scissors

• glue

• ruler

• A cheerful Christmas village can be crafted not only from toilet paper rolls, but also easily from colored cardboard.

Description and instructions

Draw the facades of the individual houses as well as the roofs and cut out all parts.

• Vary the sizes, colors, and shapes, so that afterwards a colorfulcheerful town and emerges, which will make your Advent calendar a real eye-catcher.Glue all parts together and leave the bottoms of the houses open – the little surprises will later

• be placed under the individual doorsPaint and decorate the Christmas town as you like. Brightly lit windows, red bricks or crazy doors: your imagination knows no bounds. If you want an even

• Whether placed on the windowsill or on a tray with

• moss, stonessand and – this Advent calendar is fun and also invites Christmas play.Filling an Advent calendar for children

Once the Advent calendar is finished, the question of suitable filling arises. Ideally you have already

considered this topic before crafting, so that the gifts will later fit into the crafted doors. To be on the safe side, plan larger doors for number 6 (St. Nicholas) and 24 (Christmas) – also to build anticipation.Of course you don't have to go overboard when buying the small gifts and spend a lot – after all Christmas is still ahead. You will find that your child is already happy about

little things or homemade presents is pleased, because first and foremost it's about the exciting thrill of opening the packages and the anticipation of Christmas!Of course almost all children are also happy about sweet treats such as gummy bears, chocolate and candies. It's best to fill your handmade Advent calendar with a

colorful mix of fun, treats and healthy items. As inspiration we show you what options there are for filling:Toys:

Toys and craft supplies are popular with girlsboys and equally popular . Here small surprises such as pens, stickers, bubbles, bouncy balls, keychains, playing cards or hair ties are a good idea to bring a smile to your children's faces.Sweets:

For many little sweet-tooths chocolate, gingerbread, cookies and speculoos are the best. Of course sweets should not be missing in a homemade Advent calendar. Snacking within reason should be allowed and especially in the pre-Christmas season the temptation is even greater, because many treats are seasonally limited.Healthy treats

: For a better balance to sweets, healthy snacks are recommended. Nuts, mandarins or apples fit in any Advent calendar and are very popular with most children. This way you can be sure that with healthy snack alternatives you will always meet your little ones' tastes. Vouchers

: A particularly nice and individual idea for filling the Advent calendar are vouchers that you make yourself. These are valid for small treatsshared activitieshomemade presents.Small gifts for the Advent calendar

Are you finished crafting your Advent calendar but still missing the right filling? HABA offers you a large selection of toys and ideas for every age. It's best to take a look right away and discover exciting items that perfectly round off your homemade Advent calendar.

Our four favorite craft tutorials for Advent calendars – creative ideas & inspirations

Gift idea for children: vouchers in the Advent calendar

.Vouchers are a great Alternative to sweets and toys! The little experiences that are gifted stay in children's memories longer and bring young and old even closer together. They can be used as small notes

practically tied to any Advent calendar or simply placed in the compartments when filling them. Here you'll find a few ideas that are guaranteed to put a smile on your child's face.

• Voucher ideas

• /magazine/leisure-creativity/painting-and-crafting-with-children/christmas-crafts-with-children

• /magazine/leisure-creativity/sport-movement/forest-walk-with-children

• Forest walk

• Treat from the Christmas market

• Baking cookies

• Sledding

• Visit to the wildlife park

• Visit to the children's or puppet theater

Trip to the water park

Advent calendar for children – buy one or make it yourself?Would you like to give your little Christmas elves a real one-of-a-kind, which you won't find on the market, it's always a good idea to craft an Advent calendar and fill it yourself. That way you can not only adapt the the design to your child's preferences, but also the decide the contents yourself

With lots of attention to detail you can create an Advent calendar in no time that is truly one of a kind. Of course this requires some creative skill and time – which some parents lack, especially in the hectic pre-Christmas period.

But don't worry if you don't have the opportunity to do Christmas crafts – there are also great ready-made Advent calendars for children! Whether bags to fill or ready-made variants from well-known manufacturers – at HABA you'll find many Advent calendars on exciting themes and child-friendly designs: From PLAYMOBIL® to Pixi to Schleich® – there's guaranteed something suitable for every child!

Good to know: If you have multiple children, remember to make or buy an Advent calendar for each child. This avoids disputes and the little ones will look forward to opening their small gift anew every day.

Image credits

Sisters sit in the living room and look at the Advent calendar © Natalia - stock.adobe.com

Materials needed to craft an Advent calendar © Maria - stock.adobe.com

Advent calendar made from toilet paper rolls © Stefan - stock.adobe.com

Child looks at an Advent calendar on a clothes hanger © Maria - stock.adobe.com

Child opens a door on a homemade Advent calendar © ninelutsk - stock.adobe.com

Advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas town © lithiumphoto - stock.adobe.com

Girl holds up a chocolate St. Nicholas © sweetlaniko - stock.adobe.com

Child stands in front of the Advent calendar wearing a St. Nicholas hat © Lyubov Ilyushina - stock.adobe.com