Cardboard roll Advent calendar
24 cardboard rolls, little papers to close them, and every December morning a door to open: a treat, an activity or a kind note.
Age : age 4+
Materials
- 24 toilet rolls : Start saving them in October! Or 12 kitchen rolls cut in half.
- Wrapping paper, tissue paper or coloured paper : To close the ends.
- Glue, tape, scissors
- Markers or number stickers : To number 1 to 24.
- A big box or shoebox : To arrange the rolls as a tree or pyramid.
- 24 little surprises : Sweets, stickers, or activity notes (see variation).
Steps
Make
- Paint or decorate the rolls: red, green, gold, candy-cane stripes.
- Close one end of each roll with a circle of paper, glued or taped.
- Slip the surprise inside.
- Close the other end with tissue paper: that's the end you poke through with a finger.
- Write a number from 1 to 24 on each roll, out of order so there's a hunt every morning.
- Glue the rolls standing or lying in the box as a tree, or stack them into a pyramid.
Sweet-free calendar: a note in each roll with an activity from the site ("Today: cotton bud ghosts!"), a joke or a kind mission ("Give someone a surprise hug").
If it goes wrong
- Not enough rolls : Cut kitchen rolls in half, or make paper cones.
- Pyramid collapses : Glue each roll to its neighbours with a dot of glue.
Safety
- No small swallowable surprises if a child under 3 lives at home.