How To Make A Repurposed Paper Bag Advent Calendar

I love autumn, as that’s when I start crafting for Christmas. The first Christmas decoration I usually make is an advent calendar. This year, I’ve made a repurposed paper bag advent calendar.

I have 3 boys who are really young men now, but they still love an advent calendar, especially a fun homemade one. In the past, I’ve made an upcycled advent calendar using tin cans, one from kraft paper and one from a jeans pocket.

The handmade jeans advent calendar will go up again this year alongside the paper bag advent calendar.

Why A Repurposed Paper Bag Advent Calendar

When crafting, I love to use the stuff around me rather than making trips to the craft store to buy unnecessary materials. Every time I go shopping and buy something that is given to me in a paper bag, I keep the bag.

Sometimes, I reuse these bags when gifting things to people, especially the pretty ones.

I noticed, though, that I had quite a collection of paper bags, some of which were in Christmas colours (especially the ones from Anthropologie). I thought using these for this year’s handmade advent calendar would be fun.

The paper on the bags is strong. Using cookie cutters to cut the paper from the bags into Christmas shapes would make the advent calendars appear more festive.

I thought it would be fun for the boys to try and guess from which shops the shapes were from each day on the paper bag advent calendar.

Also, for this Christmas craft, I got to do one of my favourite crafty things: stitch paper.

I don’t know why, but I love sewing paper on the sewing machine—even more than stitching fabric. If you have never tried it, I suggest you give it a try.

If you don’t have a sewing machine, it is just as easy to make this paper bag advent calendar with glue. However, I don’t think it will be as much fun as stitching paper.

We’re a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

What You Need To Make A Paper Bag Advent Calendar

• A collection of paper bags from shops. It doesn’t matter what size they are, as you will cut them up. That would be even better if they were in traditional Christmas colours or had fun patterns. My favourite bags were from Anthropologie.
• Christmas cookie cutters. If you don’t have any Christmas cookie cutters, you could draw the shapes for the paper bag advent calendar by hand.

I have drawn some Christmas cookie cutter shapes with a previous Christmas craft, you can visit the post and download them from there.

• Small craft pegs & twine
• Number stencil and sharpie
• Sewing machine or strong paper glue
• Treats for the paper bag advent calendar

How To Make an Advent Calendar

Step 1: Decide how many days you want for the calendar. You may think this is obvious. I’ve learn’t from previous experience that people have different views on the number of days on a Christmas advent calendar. We are a 24-day advent calendar household. Some like a 25-day calendar, and others even have them up to New Year’s.

Step 2: Place a Christmas cookie cutter on your paper bag. Draw around it and then cut out 2 Christmas shapes the same.

Step 3: Carry on cutting out Christmas shapes from the bags until you have enough for your advent calendar, whether it be for 24, 25, or heavens above 31 days.

If you run out of cookie-cutter shapes, duplicate some or draw your own.

Step 4: Next, here comes the fun part. Using a sewing machine, stitch the shapes together, leaving a gap large enough for a treat to fit inside.

If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can just glue them together.

Step 5: Using the ruler and a Sharpie, stencil a different number on the front of each shape (1-24, 25 or 31).

Step 6: The other potentially controversial element of making a handmade paper bag advent calendar comes next. What do you put inside yours? Personally, I like to include a sweet treat and a cheesy Christmas joke. Others have suggested that the advent calendars should be full of inspirational quotes and mottos. A few even suggest a daily chore!

My boys are only interested in a treat and a laugh. If a daily chore existed in the advent calendar, it would remain unopened!

Once you have filled the Christmas shape with paper, sew (or glue) it shut.

Hanging the Calendar

Step 7: Finally, all that is left to do is hang the DIY paper bag advent calendar. With just one more decision to make, should the Christmas shapes be hung in number order?

I like to hang my numbers in random order. Half the fun of an advent calendar is hunting for the right day.

I just used twine and small craft pegs to hang the paper bag advent calendar in a picture frame. Another way to hang the calendar is to use a coat hanger, as I did with this homemade paper envelope calendar.

You might think that even though this repurposed paper bag advent calendar is very affordable, it requires a lot of effort for a one-off calendar.

Often, I craft and upcycle just for the fun of it. It’s not just about the results but the process, too. On a wet Saturday, I had a very fun, relaxing afternoon making this homemade Christmas calendar.

It was very relaxing and, for me, the best therapy. It was just what I needed to wind down after a busy week.

I have stitched paper to make map heart treat bags for Valentine’s and cute bunny treat bags for Easter. There is also a tutorial for hand-stitched embroidered dictionary art on Pillarboxblue.

You might want to check out these other papercrafts if you enjoyed this craft.

• Paper Rosettes Decorations From Maps
• Make Your Own Christmas Crackers With Old Maps
• DIY Christmas Decorations Penguins
• Upcycle Packaging Into A Gingerbread Garland
• Map Leaf Wreath

This upcycled bag craft is featured under b for bags in the A to Z of upcycling resources and in this amazing collection of repurposed Christmas decorations made from household waste.