Toilet roll advent calendars are a festive way to recycle old toilet rolls. An advent calendar is a great way to celebrate the countdown to Christmas, and there’s something extra special about a DIY advent calendar.
The best cardboard tube advent calendar DIYs
We love reusing and repurposing materials in our craft projects. Not only is using materials you have lying around your house easy and affordable, and this approach is also environmentally-friendly.
Toilet paper rolls are perfect for making an advent calendar, as well as being a great way to teach your kids about recycling.
1. Christmas tree advent calendar
Toilet rolls make the perfect containers to store treats as part of an advent calendar, so why not create some festive cheer with this Christmas tree-themed advent calendar? Along with some old toilet rolls, you’ll need wrapping paper, sticky paper, ribbon, Christmas stickers, and some candy to hide inside!
Cookist Wow’s video tutorial shows you how to staple the toilet rolls together in a tree shape for the basic structure. Wrapping paper forms the back of the tree, and you then glue paper on the front of each tube to keep the goodies secure until the right date.
To finish your advent calendar, you stamp numbers on the front of each tube for the dates and decorate with festive stickers, then hang the tree with a ribbon. The video also has written instructions in the description.
The end of the video has some other fun and easy ideas for festive decorations, including a chocolate-covered champagne bottle “Christmas tree” and Christmas tree tabletop decorations made from plastic forks.
2. Reusable advent calendar
We love that you can reuse this calendar – you’ll be able to p ull it out every year and fill it with fresh treats! Like the previous project, this uses toilet rolls to form a Christmas tree-shaped advent calendar.
Each roll is covered in gold glitter wrapping paper for a good dose of sparkle, with an elegant color scheme of metallic shades of gold, silver, and copper.
This video by Krystal Jugarap goes through how to make this project in detail, including tips for ensuring your toilet rolls are sturdy and a nice round shape. The tutorial uses a hot glue gun to stick everything together, then cute bows to decorate the front of each toilet roll cubby hole, and finishes with festive ribbons and bells to decorate.
3. Hanging parcel toilet roll advent calendar
This project uses a clever technique to turn toilet rolls into little parcels. Don’t worry – these are very simple to make with just a couple of cuts and folds.
Fill the little boxes with treats or ornaments, then hang them in a line along a stick.
You can make this simple project with just a few basic tools and supplies – you’ll need a hole punch, folding tool, scissors, circle punch, cardboard, double-sided tape, ribbon, thread, and a long stick.
You’ll also need an old CD to trace the form of the boxes – so you may have to dig around in the back of your storage closet to find one! Alternatively, you can use any circular object of a similar size.
You can reuse most of the same elements to recreate your advent calendar year after year. Follow along with Tuteate’s video tutorial to make your own!
4. Cricut advent calendar
With this project, you can now add an advent calendar to the long list of things you can do with your Cricut machine. If you don’t have a die-cutting machine but are curious about these magical items, check out this article.
The great thing about using a Cricut machine is that you get a precise and professional-looking advent calendar, while being able to customize it with any design, font, or color that you want!
This advent calendar is super easy to make, as the Cricut does most of the work. Pocket Wonders’ tutorial shows you how to design your advent calendar with Cricut’s software, cut your design, and put it all together.
You’ll also find step-by-step written instructions here.
5. Cozy house advent calendar
This cardboard tube advent calendar is in the shape of a cute house with a roof and a chimney, with cotton wool to represent smoke coming out of the chimney. It uses simple no-fuss techniques – you write the numbers on craft paper with a marker, cut the paper out into circles, and then glue the paper onto the front of the toilet rolls.
Luckily you have the perfect template at hand to make circles in the perfect size – simply trace around a toilet roll!
Although super simple to make, you will need a hot glue gun, strong glue, and craft knife – so this DIY project is not suitable for children,
Check out Design By Mariska’s video for step-by-step instructions to make this easy project.
6. Toilet roll and wood advent calendars
This video from Cleverly is packed with inspiration for ideas for creating advent calendars from repurposed materials. It features seven different projects using toilet rolls, tea boxes, and wood.
These include advent calendars made with paper bags pegged onto a Christmas tree made from planks of wood, toilet rolls, and wrapping paper parcels bound together in a concertina shape. We particularly love the super-cute elves made from felt and toilet rolls, each representing one of the 24 days of advent.
The video tutorial goes through each of these easy projects step by step, with plenty of creative ideas for repurposing materials for festive DIY, such as cable cars made from tea boxes, and turning old soda bottles into little Santas.
7. Kid-friendly DIY advent calendar
This is a kid-friendly project – it’s easy to make and only uses safe materials such as toilet rolls, craft paint, and a glue stick.
SLICK SLIME SAM’s fun video is designed for young crafters – they will love following along to make their advent calendar and learning some DIY tips along the way.
The video clearly explains what an advent calendar is, what to do to make it, and, more importantly, why. For example, it covers why it’s more practical to use a glue stick instead of liquid glue.
Your kids will also love the bright, festive colors featured in the tutorial, maybe almost as much as the candy inside!
Other Christmas craft ideas using toilet roll
Toilet paper roll is great for all kinds of DIY projects, not just advent calendars. There are plenty of fun things you can do with these repurposed materials.
So start saving up your toilet rolls for Christmas crafts for kids.
8. Toilet roll Christmas craft ideas for kids
Keep your kids entertained while getting into the festive spirit with these fun toilet roll crafts! This video from Easy Kids Craft is packed with fun, kid-friendly DIY projects.
Your little crafters will love making these adorable toilet roll snowmen, reindeer, Christmas trees, elves, or Santas.
After painting the toilet roll, they need to draw the faces on with markers, and then finish by decorating with simple elements like pipe cleaners, ribbons, and buttons. For example, they can make a ribbon scarf for their snowman, a craft paper belt for an elf, or a cotton wool beard for Santa.
The video tutorial goes through how to make each project step by step. This tutorial uses a hot glue gun, which is ok for older kids, but you’ll need to help younger children with this part!
9. Toilet roll Christmas ornaments
You can also put old toilet paper rolls to use to make stunning Christmas ornaments. You won’t believe that this large, delicate snowflake is made from toilet rolls!
You can create an intricate design by cutting the rolls into pieces and forming a pattern. You can also achieve different effects by making the toilet roll segments into elliptical shapes or doubling them up to make varied shapes.
You then simply stick it all together, cover in glue and glitter, and then add a snowflake piece or similar to finish.
Check out Maremi Small Art’s tutorial for detailed instructions on how to make this stunning snowflake decoration. You can also adapt this concept to come up with your own patterns and designs.
10. Toilet roll Christmas poppers
Like the advent calendar, Christmas poppers are another favorite tradition for many during the holidays. If you want to make your own for a more personal touch, a toilet roll is the perfect size and shape for the body of the popper!
Follow along with BudgetSavvyDiva’s video to make beautiful Christmas poppers. This project is super easy – you’ll be able to make each popper in a couple of minutes.
The video also has some great ideas for goodies to put inside each popper, which are much better than the plastic items you’ll usually find in the store-bought variety. One of the best things about making your own Christmas poppers is that you can personalize them for your guests!
Final thoughts
It’s hard to believe that these advent calendars, Christmas poppers, and ornaments are all made from old toilet paper rolls!
With a bit of creativity, you can turn plain old cardboard tubes into a dazzling advent calendar or festive decoration to add some instant holiday cheer to your home. These projects are easy and fun to make, and some are even suitable for young crafters, so you can get your kids involved!
If you’ve enjoyed this list of the best toilet roll advent calendars, go ahead and share it with your friends and family!
