Modern Advent Calendar Ladder

Make a modern advent calendar perfect for toddlers with this little paper village filled with activities and fun ideas for Christmas! Plus, this DIY ladder is the perfect way to display it all!

Growing up we didn’t do a countdown to Christmas. Some years we made a paper chain, but that was the extent of it. Now that Mini Me is old enough to understand though I thought it’d be fun to do an activity advent calendar to bring a little magic to the season and countdown to Christmas.

The season gets so hectic and busy, but I want to actually check things off the Christmas bucket list this year rather than getting through the season and realize we didn’t do half of the things we had wanted to.

Modern Advent calendar image.

Since “blanket ladder” has been on my to-build list for like 2 years I figured now was the perfect time to make one! I don’t know why the heck I didn’t make one sooner. I literally made the entire ladder start to finish in an hour. All I had to do was put a few coats of paint on it once kids got to bed and it was done.

Tutorial coming soon on how to make a quick and easy blanket ladder!

Finished modern advent calendar image.

Anyways, back to the advent calendar.

So, once I decided I wanted to hang our advent calendar from a ladder I started thinking of some creative ways to do it. I actually bought 25 small gold and red drawstring bags on clearance after Christmas last year so I’d have the stuff to make an advent calendar this year, however, now that we’ve really nailed down our style it just did not fit our look so good idea, but not quite good for us anymore.

When I saw on Insta-stories a few week’s ago that Lia Griffith was working on what looked to be a little advent calendar village I knew that would be the perfect thing for our advent calendar! If you don’t know Lia Griffith, she is a creative genius and also a fellow-Portlander. Check out these incredible dresses she’s made out of PAPER! 

You guys!! It did NOT disappoint!

christmas village ladder image.

The village was included as part of her monthly membership site so I just signed up for $10 and then will cancel after this month. Totally worth it to not have to stress about windows and folds and doors and chimnies. Plus, she included a ribbon cut file to write our activities on.

Get the Advent Calendar Village here!

I also downloaded a cut file for geode ornaments so that it wasn’t all houses. You can find those here.

Hanging houses

Hanging houses for christmas calendar ladder image.

I spent an evening cutting all the houses, trees, and shapes out with my Silhouette Cameo and then hot glued them all together. Just don’t forget to add the activity ribbon inside before you glue the last side and make sure to keep track of which house goes with which day.

I grabbed some number stickers when I was at Michael’s and so I just had to add those to the shapes, string them with a needle and black thread, and tie them on.

Modern advent calendar with houses and dates image.

Christmas calendar ladder image.

I seriously could not have dreamed up this advent calendar any better in my head. I am in love with how it turned out and can’t wait to start opening one each day with Clara!

Modern advent calendar complete image

She’s so excited and loved helping put it all together. Good thing she doesn’t know how to read yet, so no activity surprises have been spoiled.

Check out that happy smile! Gosh, I love that girl!

Happy baby playing with Christmas village ladder image.

Baby amazed with the modern advent calendar image.

When I numbered the activities I made sure to plan it all out based on weekdays, weeknights, and when we could do things when daddy would be home like ice skating and visiting Santa. We also have simple things on the list like color a Christmas coloring sheet or cut out paper snowflakes.

White house with date image.

So, what do you think?

If you love this as much as I do I’d love for you to share it on Facebook or pin it for later!

Baby playing piano image.

P.S. This girl LOVES her baby grand piano we gave her for her first birthday and I love that it’s now her sister’s favorite toy too. This piano gets so much love every day! If you want to get your own, this is the baby grand piano we have.

Beautiful modern advent calendar image. modern advent calendar beside a piano image Advent calendar and Christmas village calendar image.

Like this post? You’ll also love these…

Try these advent calendar activities for toddlers! So many simple and easy ideas to help spread the magic of Christmas.

I love these advent calendar activities for kids! So many simple and easy ideas to help spread the magic of Christmas.

Check one thing off the holiday to-do list! These Modern Christmas card ideas for the modern family are so cute and simple.

Check one thing off the holiday to-do list! These Christmas card ideas for the modern family are so cute and minimal.

 

Related Posts

One thought on “Modern Advent Calendar Ladder

Comments are closed.