DIY: Wire Advent Calendar

There's snow on the ground. In November. What a way to get the message that Christmas is already headed our way quickly. And I love knowing just how quickly it's creeping up with a good advent calendar. Sadly, most of the paper ones available have waxy gross chocolates each day that aren't much to look forward to and the paper package is somewhat lacking. So this year, I decided to try my hand at a new advent that's pretty and holds treats that are worth opening each day.

What You'll Need:
- Wood cut and glued into a triangle shape (33"x33"x22")
- Sheet of chicken wire (18"x 36")
- 25 2"x2" paper bags (color of choice)
- 2 sheets of number stickers
- Star Ornament
- White Paint (and brush)
- Treats for baggies
- Strand of 30 Firefly Lights
- Mini clothespins
- Staple Gun
- Scrap Wood for trunk
- Hot Glue Gun
Not pictured: Cinnamon Bears. A must for snacking on while crafting.



Once you have your wood triangle set up, you'll need to paint it white. I like to add white paint to a cup of about half an inch of water. It gives the wood a more white-washed effect rather than the really thick painted look. Whitewashing always reminds me of that movie Tom and Huck. Remember? JTT is painting whitewashing the fence and Brad Renfro comes and gets him to ditch his punishment? That movie came out almost 20 years ago. How is that possible? ...And what ever happened to JTT? Anyway, back on track. Whitewash your wood or paint it whatever color you want. You may need to do a couple of coats to get it just the way you want it. And be sure to get the outside and inside edges as well. Don't worry about painting the back. Nobody'll see it.


While you're waiting for that to dry, go ahead and get your bags ready. You'll need (13) 1's and (12) 2's so make sure that your two sheets of numbers has you covered. Stuff your envelopes with your treat of choice. Pretzels, fruit snacks, leftover Halloween candy...there's no judgement here. Grab what works and toss it in. The ones I used are pretty transparent so if you don't want your treats to show, make sure you pick an opaque paper instead.

Your wood should be mildly dry enough now to get your chicken wire attached. I used a pre-painted white wire netting but use whatever you can find. Lay the sheet across the back of your triangle and cut a little over 1 cm overhang on the interior. You'll staple gun the wire onto the back from here. The wire should be semi-flexible so stretch it a bit where you need to. You can always trim little excess at the end.

Now string your lights throughout your wire. I like to hide my battery pack behind the stem so I start on the bottom left of my tree. Loop the lights in a zig-zag pattern throughout. One reason I love these lights is the timer function. You can turn them on/off as normal OR you can use the timer function that keeps the lights on for eight hours once on, then turns them off for sixteen hours. Then they come back on for another eight and so on. I love it.

Pin your envelopes in place. You may want to try spreading them out on the tree before pinning them in place just to be sure you have the spacing right. Once they're on there, hot glue your star on the top, glue the stem on the bottom and the battery pack to the back of the stem. Voila! A super-cute christmas tree advent calendar! You could even make a larger version to pin christmas cards to if you wanted to. And it even looks cute without the lights on.

Give it a try! I'd love to see pictures of your finished products and hear how it goes.