Comments on: How can I reuse or recycle advent calendars?

By: ndm

ndm — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:30:49 +0000

A year late perhaps…
Kind of in keeping with emmeline’s suggestion. We had 24 little boxes. Every day my two brothers and I would unwrap a box, where we would find what we had placed in it last year, and each of us would put an item in the box and rewrap it to be opened next year. Sort of a year by year time capsule. Thinking back, we put some strange things in those boxes. We thought it was neat when we were doing it.

By: emmeline

emmeline — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:03:02 +0000

My grandmother made a beautiful fabric wall hanging advent calendar. Instead of taking things off or opening boxes, you hang a new decoration up in a designated spot. Hers has a backdrop of a big christmas tree and every day a little christmas-themed animal gets hooked up, so the hanging gets more festive the closer one gets to christmas. :D

By: Courtney

Courtney — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:33:24 +0000

Thanks for those links, Heather! I love the advent calendar made out of matchboxes at Bubbly Funk. I’m so excited to customize my own box Calendar for Christmas! (And now I have a new use for leftover matchboxes!)

Thanks again!

By: Canadian

Canadian — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:48:09 +0000

I still use the old-fashioned paper kind with no chocolate. I bought some as gifts from Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland: http://www.bronners.com/

By: Heather Cawte

Heather Cawte — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:39:04 +0000

There’s a lovely reusable one here, made from recycled materials:

http://craftastica.blogspot.com/2008/11/recycle-bin-advent-calendar.html

It makes a good family project, too. Or there’s this box type:

http://www.bubblyfunk.co.uk/article_info.php?articles_id=39

By: sami

sami — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:37:27 +0000

a cute homemade advent calendar I saw had picture nails (or pins?) in a painted board. tiny “presents” were wrapped and tied with a gold cord, then the nail could slip under the bow. very easy to reuse – you could use scrap paper and the smallest unused pieces of giftwrap, or even reuse cloth every year.

By: Bellen

Bellen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Advent calendars do not have to provide a gift/treat so the paper ones with doors to open to a picture or Bible phrase are reusable from year to year. By the time my oldest left home, each kid had a well-worn, well-loved Advent calendar to take with him.

To make your own:
Simplest is a paper chain with each loop numbered, cut off one each day.

More advanced would be to make 24 trees or stars out of construction paper, number them, paste a Christmas picture/Bible verse to the back, hang them with ribbon to a dowel, hang that on the wall and turn one each day.

Even more advanced – sew 24 pockets to a large piece of felt – number them first – insert a dowel at the top to hang up, put a candy cane, chocolate kiss, in each pocket, take one daily.

More ideas can easily be found by Googling ‘Make your own Advent calendar”.

By: Malva

Malva — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:22:13 +0000

We buy Playmobil advent calendars. Depending on how many years you have kids at home, you can repackage them and a few years down the road when the kids will have forgotten about it, reuse it.

By: Agata

Agata — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:39:30 +0000

Fill the plastic tray with liquid chocolate/jelly/whatever and make little tasty figurines…anymore ideas?

By: Dan @ Daily Eco Tips

Dan @ Daily Eco Tips — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:41:52 +0000

I’ve successfully used melted chocolate and re-used a calendar before. Just be careful that the chocolate isn’t so hot that it melts the plastic.