Christmas is by far our family’s favourite holiday- from the delicious food and fun traditions, it’s something we look forward to year after year. This year I wanted to give our typical chocolate advent calendars a bit of an upgrade. What started as a fun idea to cut down on the kid’s candy and cutting down on our intake by being able to make one that we can use year after year- turned into a full blown project!

Now I chose to go with a Harry Potter theme, anyone who knows me knows I grew up reading them and absolutely adore the series and it’s been so much fun as my girls are really getting into Harry Potter now too. But this fun DIY can be any theme you want, and if you’re a Harry Potter fan too then maybe this will be some great inspiration for you. This project turned into a bigger one than anticipated because I chose to make it very intricate and even interactive for my kids, but if wanted it can be a very simple fun DIY that you’ll love pulling out every Christmas time!

I’m breaking this project up into three parts, so just use the ones you need. This one will be all about customising and decorating the boxes for each day!

Getting Started

There are so many awesome blank advent calendars you can find. I looked through so many before settling on this one. I loved the top display as I thought I would easily be able to add to it and make it look fit for the wizarding world and I loved that it lit up! But there were so many wonderful options to choose from.

Picking A Theme

As stated, I went with Harry Potter! I wanted every day to showcase a different part of the wizarding world. You could stick to a traditional Christmas theme, make it custom to your family, your favourite movie or book, winter themed, the options are virtually endless. Then I would decide if you want each day to be distinct and different or if you want them to blend more and be very similar. It’s up to you! I listed out what I wanted each box/day to be.

Making The Background

I already knew I wanted my advent calendar to look as magical as possible, so I wanted each box to have a different background. You can choose to keep your background plain, paint them all one colour (or multiple!) or make a large picture background cutting it up into the drawer sections. Just have fun with it! I found online the images of backgrounds I wanted to use and printed them out. Then I used mode podge to paint the drawers and paste on the images. I pocked a hole with a pencil where the knobs were and pushed the extra paper around the knob so it fit perfectly. My advent calendar already came with this beautifully engraved numbers. Using mode dodge allows you to gently rub the paper and the numbers shown through. Then you can trace over them with paint or markers. Allow to completely dry before moving to the next step or putting them back in their spots.

Adding The Details

I then found images of things I wanted to include on my drawer and again printed them out. To give them some dimension and to ensure better durability I glued all these images onto cardstock and then cut them out. Then you can simply glue them on with a glue stick, or if you’d like to make some elements pop you can add them on with 3D foam tape. This is where I really had fun getting creative and I made interactive elements to most of the days, I know my girls love interactive things so wanted it to be full of surprises. If you love diving in too, here’s a list of the interactive elements I added to get your creative juices flowing!

1. Hogwarts Castle: Pull the moon to expose a werewolf on the grounds, the flying car is behind a lift up cloud
2. Dobby the House elf: Open the book to find a sock you can take out (I used a velcro dot for this)
3. Hogwarts House Points: Move the house points up and down
4. Sorting Hat: Pull out Godric Gryffindor’s Sword from the hat
5. The Monster Book of Monsters: The book opens to expose his scary mouth
6. The Seven Horcruxes: You can put the basilisk fang through the diary
7. Gryffindor: Open the Fat lady portrait to see the Gryffindor common room
8. Hogwarts Letters: One envelope opens and you can take out the real Hogwarts letter
9. Ravenclaw: Flip through one of the books
10. Butterbeer: “drink” your butter beer and make the glass half full
11. Time Turner: Can turn the time turner
12. Hufflepuff: Can take out and repot the mandrake
13. Chocolate Frogs: Open a box to find a chocolate frog and wizarding card
14. Alhambra: Can move the feather with the wand
15. Maurauders Map: Open the map
16. Quidditch: Can take out the quaffle (I used a velcro dot for this)
17. Slytherin: Can move the potions to add to the cauldron
18. Stag Patronous: Pull the stag to reveal flying dementors

Finishing Touches

I painted the little knobs to coordinate with each day’s display, some of the numbers I traced on and others I chose to cut out of cardstock paint and then glue on. If your images are flat I would suggest glossing over them with hodgepodge to ensure they last a long time! I’m pretty pleased with how mine turned out and can’t wait to complete the entire calendar just in time for December!

Stay tuned for Part two where I will dive into how you can customise the advent calendar holder next!

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