A Tiny Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

Welcome to another Winter Bazaar for ideas on making the holidays more festive or fun--games, recipes, activities, tips, techniques, traditions, whatever works for you. For past editions click the "crafts" link label at the bottom of this post.

This is a tiny Christmas tree advent calender with 24 tiny gifts, each containing an ornament that gets placed on the tree for every day leading up to Christmas.

You'll need:
A tiny Christmas tree
Tiny garlands, tiny candy canes, etc.
24 tiny ornaments
24 greeting cards
press-on numbers
24 tiny bows

I got my tree at Michael's and it's nice in that the wire limbs can easily be bent back into place each year when it comes out of storage. I decorated it by sewing mini strands of garland, candy canes and tiny plastic bulbs in place on the branches--these never come off. Though "never" is relatively optimistic. Over the years the kids have "accidentally" stripped the decorations off the branches as they love that poor tree to death.

I found 24 different ornaments, some relating to Christmas scenes like tiny nativities and angels and such, then made 24 tiny boxes using the old greeting cards (or cardstock). To see the tutorial on how to make them go to this post of mine here: Tiny Gift Boxes. Though it's not necessary you can also put a square of quilt batting in the bottom of each box to keep the ornaments from rattling around and to give it that final touch.

Number each box 1-24 with the press on letters, top each with a bow, put one tiny ornament in every box and place each beneath the tree. I have a tiny tree skirt I made that matches our big one but you could easily use a pretty doily.

Let the countdown begin!



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