Since Alex told me about his family following the german tradition of Advent calendars, I wanted to make one for him as a surprise; and that’s what I did!
An Advent calendar is a calendar that begins on 1st December and ends on Christmas; it consists of 24 little doors or boxes numbered from 1 to 24. Beginning on the first day of December, one door is opened each day, counting down the days remaining until Christmas Eve; behind each door is a treat, a piece of chocolate or a toy.
I decided to make one with boxes of matches and fill each box with candy, jelly sweets, christmas ornaments and little notes.
Plus, my calendar would have 5 rows x 5 columns as a matter of symmetry.
That’s what I needed:
- 25 boxes of matches
- black, red and (a little bit of) gold paint
- plenty of candy (I used m&ms and two kinds of haribo jellies)
- four tiny christmas ornaments
…and that’s what you can do to make one:
Patiently empty all the match boxes.
(we now have a decent amount of matches to set the roof on fire).
After that, glue them all together making a 5×5 drawer.
Eat some of the candy…
Then check how many candies fit in a box.
Paint it up!
I also painted the exterior of each ‘drawer’ separately
so that there are no blank marks when it’s open.
Let it dry and then fill in the boxes!
There you go! 
UPDATE: You can see the 2011 advent calendar (made with paper bags) here!
Remember how we had one of these at some point in primary school? There was supposed to be chocolate inside some window thingies, but I had eaten the lot of them.
We did? I don’t recall; maybe it was before I came. I’d surely remember anything with chocolate!
It’s a joy every day <3
Hey, this site is awesome! I will make one of these for myself… I am a chocolate addict. =D
Thanks so much for your ideas!
Haha, do that; the only disadvantage is that you’ll know beforehand what’s inside the tiny boxes. On the other hand, you’ll have all the chocolate by yourself! (I’m a chocolate addict too.
)
Thank so much for your comment!
[...] Posted by Kynthia on December 5th 2010 in arts :: crafts You might also like: UPDATE: You can see the 2011 advent calendar (made with paper bags) here ! Matchbox Chocolate Advent Calendar [...]