Making my own 2018 Advent Calendar

Hello everyone! I’m very excited because I’m about to share with you my Advent Calendar for this year. But this is not just a simple Advent Calendar I purchased, I made it myself. But it probably doesn’t surprise you. 😉
I know that for some people, Advent Calendar are only for kids, to help them wait for Christmas day to arrive. But for me, it’s not just something about having a chocolate candy everyday until Christmas. Honestly, I don’t agree with all the calendar sold in supermarkets or by shops etc and just giving it to the kids just because it’s Advent Time, so there is no other reason why they should get one.
Let me explain how I think it should be and why.
For many of us, Advent is just about waiting for Christmas. Of course it is. But there are other aspects. We tend to see only one side, one corner. Advent means so much and so many other things than having a candy everyday and desperately wait for Christmas.
For me Advent is about waiting, caring, forgiving, giving, receiving, wishing and hoping. It’s about Family, God. Look at the Christmas Tree. In my family, we get and decorate it when Advent starts. For us, decorating the Christmas tree is more about having a family time than adding something beautiful in the house. I mean, it’s beautiful, but it’s even more beautiful when you spend time with your family for it.
During Advent, we should be practicing these things that don’t belong only to Christmas: giving, receiving, forgiving, creating great memories…
But when you buy a calendar with candies inside and give it to your child, because it’s Advent and everybody does the same, how can you expect your child to understand that?
I believe Advent calendars should be an opportunity to create family memories. But how? Everyone in the family should be making one for each other, for both kids and grown ups. It doesn’t have to be filled with candies, it could be inspiring quotes, candles, cute little homemade things….
Advent calendars shouldn’t be about purchasing one in the supermarket and let kids have a candy everyday.
It should be about creating something for the others, giving something to the others, stimulating kids creativity, creating family memories, spending time with your beloved ones. It should be about caring and sharing.
This is how I think it should be. This is why I decided not to buy any calendar for myself and the others. This is why I decided to make it all by myself, with all my heart, spend time thinking about the person who will receive this calendar made by me.
As I said, Advent is about sharing, so, of course, I’m gonna show you how I made it, right now!
To begin, I took two cardboard “trays ” like these:

I also took Pringles boxes and cut them into “slices”. As you can see, I would use these to create compartments for each day of December until Christmas, so 12 in each “tray”.

Then, I used some papers to fill in the gaps between each compartment.

After that, I did cut off 24 circles in Christmas themed wrapping paper, numbered and glued them on two big pieces of white paper.

Now, time to fill each compartment. This year, I decided take chocolates. But these aren’t the only option. You can use small items like candles, jewelries etc. Items you purchased, items you made… You can also write a story in parts. Each day a new episode. Imagine how kids would get excited everyday?! “Will I have another episode today? ” Like watching a serie, actually.
After filling all the compartments, I carefully covered it with the white paper with colored circles.
Then, I joined the two parts of the calendar together using stripes of paper. I wanted to make something like a book.