Make Christmas Memorable With A Reusable DIY Advent Calendar

We love Christmas traditions and my girls always look forward to the advent calendar.

This year I decided that I wanted to make an advent calendar that was not only reusable, but could also be used as winter decor.

Thanks to Ryobi for providing the hot glue gun and cutter for this project.

Supplies

Packaging tubes
(1) 1″x5″x8′ pine board
Bead board backer (if you want)
Wrapping paper

Tools

Sliding miter saw
Orbital Sander
Brad nailer
Jigsaw
Hot glue gun
Battery cutter tool

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The process

I cut down the packaging tubes to 4 inches in length, but you can do whatever size you need.

After I cute 24 pieces, I arranged them in the shape of a tree, but you could do whatever shape you want.

I glued the packaging tubes together because I wanted them to be one solid piece that I could pull out after Christmas.

Once I had the shape of the tree, I cut the pieces of wood to size to match the shape of the tree.

To get the point at the top, I cut the top pieces at 30 degrees on the miter saw.

At the bottom of each side I cut it at a 45 degree angle, but you can also leave it square.

The inside bottom of the tree is cut to 33.9 degrees and all of these marking are on your sliding miter.

Using the Ryobi hot glue gun I secured the pieces together and then reinforced with the brad nailer.

I also decided that I wanted a backing on the advent calendar and I had some left over bead board from our half bathroom renovation.

I traced the tree, cut it with my jigsaw and used the brad nailer to secure it to the back of the wood advent calendar.

Finally I sanded the entire piece and gave it a couple coats of spray paint.

In wanting to keep the advent calendar looking more rustic, I didn’t wood fill any of the nail holes or where any of the pieces came together.

Using the wood advent calendar

I decided to use wrapping paper to wrap around the front of the tubes, cutting it with this super cool Ryobi cutter, placed the items in the back and then slipped the wood advent calendar over the openings.

I flipped everything over and numbered the slots.

Really it’s up to you how you want to fill the slots and that’s the best part.

After Christmas is over you can remove the tree shaped tubes and add a potted plant or leave as is through winter.

You could also make this for yourself or it could be a fun gift.

Reuse the wood advent calendar year after year.

Now you can fill the advent calendar with whatever goodies your family will love.

The best part is, if you ever don’t want to do the advent calendar anymore, you can still use the shape for other holiday decor.