Make A Last-Min Christmas Tree Advent Calendar Out Of Paper

December 19, 2020

This is a creative yet easy DIY Christmas advent calendar that gets young children excited about counting down the days to Christmas! This is perfect for last-minute crafters as it is made of art supplies commonly found at home - coloured construction paper (and optionally dot stickers!)

What's fun about this paper-based DIY Christmas Tree advent calendar:

Children get to decorate the Christmas tree with dot stickers (pretend baubles) everyday as they count down. On Christmas Day, the tree would be beautifully adorned with baubles. Plus point, they practise one-to-one correspondence which is critical for math learning!
Children can trim off the tree trunk day by day until it becomes perfectly trimmed for Christmas. Plus point, they practise scissoring fine motor skills!
Each tree segment paper strip contains a "kindness" task of the day. Great for children to practise kindness, grace and courtesy and appreciate the true spirit of Christmas.

Materials

Here's the list of materials required to make this paper-based DIY Christmas Tree advent calendar:

Green, yellow and brown construction paper (Alternatively, use white paper and invite children to colour in)
Tape/glue
Marker + pencil
(Optional) Dot stickers

Tutorial

Divide brown construction paper into desired quantity (=no of days left to count down) and indicate with pencil marking. Write a kindness task for each strip. This idea is inspired by Busy Toddler's kindness countdown paper chain. See examples I wrote below.

Fold the brown construction paper to form thin tree trunk. On the outward facing side, draw dotted cutting lines and indicate numbers, biggest number at the bottom and the number 1 at the top.
(Optional) Tape dot sticker quantities corresponding to each number on the tree trunk.
Draw and cut out Christmas tree crown on green and a star on yellow construction paper. Attach star on tree crown using tape/glue. Do the same for the trunk and tree crown.