DIY: Baby Food Jar Advent Calendar

I love Advent Calendars and I was super keen to make my own (for Miss B) this year using baby food jars. Now that Master M is almost 9 months old and has been on solids for a while, I have a good collection of empty jars, in the hope that 'one day' I would put them to good use but if you don't have any and would like to make your own advent calendar I recommend asking a friend with a baby (a friend of mine happily collected her jars for me).


You will need: 
24 baby food jars
Scrapbook or construction paper/cardstock
Scissors (or circle punch)
Glue/Tape
Number Printables (see link below)
Christmas treats (optional) 

Here's what you do:
1. Print Numbers
Recently, one of my favourite bloggers Abby from Just a Girl & her Blog shared a post of how she made her very own Advent Calendar which included a free number printable - you can see her post here

I downloaded her free number printable (thanks Abby) - one page for even numbers and one page for odd onto the Christmas-theme scrapbook paper I had. I don't have a circle punch, so I found something that was the same size as the inside of the jar lid (as I wanted the red, green & brown rim showing). Once I traced the outline of the circle, I carefully cut each one out with scissors. 

Before I glued the numbers to the lids, I arranged the baby jars into a triangle (with a bit of a pattern) and added 3 jars with brown lids at the bottom of the triangle to represent the base of a Christmas Tree. I used my glue tape to stick the numbers to the jar lids. Easy!


VOILA!


2. Christmas Activities
Rather than putting just chocolate treats inside the jars, I wanted to make it a bit more exciting by adding a christmas activity of some sort to each jar (similar to the School Holiday Jar Idea) and I came across a post by the oh-so clever & creative Bianca from A Little Delightful. She kindly shares a free download to these amazing activity cards - which is exactly what I was looking for. You can also see more of her activity cards here. 

I have laminated the cards so that we can use them again and again, cut them and popped one in each of the jars.






3. Christmas Treats
I bought these Christmas (marshmellow) treats & chocolate Santas for a little treat for Miss B (hopefully she shares them with me!) and have added them to the jars. You can add your own type of treat or none at all (totally up to you). Mini candy canes will probably fit in the jars too, that may be another idea.




I am really happy with how the DIY: Baby Food Jar Advent Calendar turned out and Miss B absolutely loves them - she is very excited about opening her first one tomorrow (1st December 2014) DAY 1 - Decorate the Christmas Tree!

It's all very exciting!

Do you have an Advent Calendar for your children? 

Charlene

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