DIY Advent Calendar Ideas for Adults

Are you on the lookout for some great advent calendar ideas for your grown up kids, grandkids, partner, mother-in-law etc? If so then I have just the thing for you. I gave some DIY advent calendars to my own family a couple of years ago and they loved them, so I’m planning to do it again this year. I’ve included my YouTube videos below showing you exactly what I put in them so you can get some inspiration if you need it.

In previous years I’ve given my son (34), daughter (30) and my grandson (3) Christmas Eve boxes, but I didn’t want to give them the same thing every year so I decided to look at advent calendars for them. There are lots out there to choose from – beauty, alcohol, snacks, books, chocolate, toys … all really good but some of them are so expensive and you don’t always know what’s going to be included. After much searching and deliberation I decided none of them were just what I was looking for so I decided making my own advent calendars would be a better option.

I know you can buy the basic advent box or wall hanging that you fill yourself but the boxes and pockets for the gifts are really small and it would be a struggle to find just the right gifts to fit in them. I’d also been looking at gift baskets to give as presents and I suddenly thought a DIY Advent Calendar Gift Basket would be perfect. I wanted to make a basket for my son, daughter, grandson (my grand-daughter was too young at the time) and my 80 year old mother-in-law so I knew I would have to start looking for gifts to fill the calendar early! (I started in September).

The beauty of a DIY Advent Calendar is that you decide how much you want to spend. You could spend as little as £1 or less per gift, especially if you go and have a look around Poundland. Or you could make it a luxury calendar where you buy more expensive gifts and use the whole Advent Basket as their Christmas gift. Let’s face it, we can spend a lot of money on someone’s present, but wouldn’t it be more fun if they had 25 less expensive gifts and could open one each day of December? Maybe even having a slightly more expensive gift for Day 25.

As both my kids live with their partner I decided to do joint advent baskets for each couple. I wrapped all 25 gifts individually and wrote ‘him, her or them’ on them depending on who the gift was for. Then I put all 25 gifts into a big basket I bought cheaply at Poundland or had lying around the house.

DIY Advent Calendar Basket for Adults

It was quite a challenge finding all these small gifts! Especially for the adult men, they’re so difficult to buy for aren’t they? I actually put a Pot Noodle in one of the baskets! But I kept browsing around Poundland, Home Bargains, B&M and Aldi for about 8 weeks and managed to do it.

I tried to stick to £1 per gift where I could but I probably spent a little more on Ashton, my grandson. I was expecting it to be easier to find small gifts for a 2 year old but it was much more difficult. But it was worth it. In a month that can be very stressful for parents of young children, the Christmas gift basket gave my grandson something to keep him entertained on most days … and I tried not to put in anything that would mean ‘messy’ time lol.

DIY Advent Calendar Ideas for Toddlers

The baskets were a real hit, even with my mother-in-law! I remember how exciting it was to open a chocolate advent calendar when I was a child so getting to open a small gift every day in December as an adult would be lots of fun 🙂

DIY Advent Calendar Ideas for an 80 Year Old

I found it so much fun making my own advent calendars and am definitely doing it again this year. There are so many different ideas for gifts … you could theme it around the person’s favourite hobby or include some activities like cinema tickets. If you get stuck for gift ideas then Pinterest has some great inspiration.

Let me know in the comments below if you’ve made something similar … I’d love to hear what you put in it.