Little House Advent Calendar

DIY House Advent Calendar: A pattern for 3 sizes of paper houses, and printable number labels to make your own advent calendar village.

Jump to:

• Materials:
• How To Make The House Advent Calendar
• Setting Up Your Christmas Village
• What To Put Inside
• More Advent Ideas

I always like to do a little advent calendar for my girls.  This years house advent calendar might just be my favourite ever.

December mornings they’re excited to get downstairs after they’re dressed and beds are made, to open their advent calendar before breakfast.  My mom usually makes sure they each have a traditional chocolate advent calendar, and I’ve used all kinds of different advent calendar ideas with them over the past couple of years.  There have been Advent activity calendars with printable activity cards to do each day, lego, or play mobile to open,  and candles to burn to a certain point.  We loved doing a Children's Story Book Advent Calendar too. This year, since they’re getting a little older I went with these sweet little houses for our Christmas countdown.

I think advent calendars are such a fun way to celebrate the holiday season.  These little houses are made of paper.  They're a simple way to make a little Christmas village.  They look so cute, and filled with a little surprise or fun activity they're sure to be lots of fun and a hit with kids of all ages.

Materials:

• white paper
• old book pages
• printed patterns 
• printed numbers
• scissors
• glue

How To Make The House Advent Calendar

Free Printable Template

You can find the free printables to make your own house advent calendar in our Free Resource Library.  Subscribe below for free instant access.  

To make the fun advent calendar with little houses, start by printing out our free template for the houses from the Free Resource Library.

Use the free printable template to trace out 24 houses on to your paper.  We used regular copy paper, and also some old book pages.  Use a book from the thrift store for your book pages. You could also use scrapbook paper, or brown kraft paper too.  The printable advent calendar village has three different sizes;  small houses, medium houses, and slightly larger houses.  

Cut them out with a pair of scissors, and fold and glue them together. I used a glue stick to glue them together.  You could also use hot glue, or double-sided tape.

Next, print the free printable advent calendar numbers from the Free Resource Library, and cut them out and glue them to the houses.  One of the easiest ways to cut out the numbers is to use a large circle hole punch, if you have one that is the right size.

And lastly, fill your little houses with small items for each day, starting on December 1st.

I sat one night and watched a Christmas movie on tv while I snipped, folded and glued, in-between cups of tea.  In the morning the girls were all ohs and ahs when they saw their own little Christmas advent village.

Setting Up Your Christmas Village

I set the houses up on our little side table, and added some cute wooden Christmas trees, and a sprinkling of snow.  These little additions are so much fun.  Mini bottle brush trees would work well too.  You could also add some fairy Christmas lights.

What To Put Inside

Treats

Of course my girls wanted to know what was inside.

Is it candy?

Or is it mini toys or treasures?

Is it activities?

All of the above would be great choices.  Any small treats and small gifts would be great.  The houses are quite small, so look for small treats like a mini candy cane or very small toys, small Christmas decorations, or Christmas stickers would be a great thing to put inside.  A traditional chocolate would be a great idea also.

Other Ideas For Advent Calendar Fillers

But this year I filled our Christmas calendar with jokes and Christmas picture puzzles.  It should make for a fun start to the day.  I found some online, printed them up and then rolled them and held them together with a little gold washi tape, or you could tie them with a little baker's twine.

Other ideas are to add different bible verses for each day, or a series of readings from the Christmas story.  

Another great option is to add a different random act of kindness for each day of the month of December.  Each day you have a different act to perform for a stranger by the end of the day.

Another great way to fill the countdown calendar is with different Christmas activities to do each day.  I think this idea is especially nice for younger kids.  Each day you do different fun activities right up to Christmas day.  I love this Christmas tradition because I think it helps kids realize that there's a lot more to the Christmas season than just Santa and gifts on Christmas morning.  It helps focus on advent activities for the whole family to do together, and shifts the focus from just material items to family togetherness in a fun and wonderful way.  I know doing an activity a day can seem a little overwhelming to parents, but I always suggest filling the fun Christmas activity calendar with really simple and easy activities that aren't too overwhelming.  If you need ideas, check out our printable advent activity cards with lots of great ideas.

I love how this little DIY advent calendar turned out.  It looks so, so pretty in the living room.  It’s a delightful way to count down our way to the big day.

With a pretty little house advent calendar like this, life really is a party.

You might also like our Printable Christmas Advent Calendar Activities here.

More Advent Ideas

Also check out our Children's Story Book Advent Calendar here.