Paper Ring Advent Calendar

I wanted to get an advent calendar this year for Finley. She seems to understand a bit more about Christmas (or at least Santa Claus and presents) so I thought it would be fun to do a countdown to the big day. I took a look at the calendars at University bookstore in Mill Creek. But they were $7.00 for a simple paper one without any yummy chocolate. No chocolate, no thank you. I figured I could make my own and save the $7.00 for a treat.

I was excited to find this cheap and easy advent calendar from make & takes. It's a cute Christmas tree made out of paper rings. Every day you take off a ring until you get to the top on Christmas morning. How cute is that?

All you need is yellow paper, red paper, brown paper, green paper, scissors and tape. (And a little girl very eager to tell you what to do.)

I did my tree with some different colors than the one on make & takes. I used 3 brown loops for the trunk, 5 red loops for the ornaments, 15 green loops for the tree, and 2 yellow loops for the star on top.

I made my loops about 1 1/4 inches wide and that was a little too wide. I would do 3/4 to 1 inch strips next time.

I don't really have a good tutorial on how to put it together. The best thing to do is start from the bottom and have a picture of mine or the one from make & takes close by to copy. Once you get going it's pretty quick and easy.

After a bit of looping and taping you're left with this!

There are lots of cute ideas for DIY advent calendars out there. I pinned a few over at Pinterest. However, this was by far the easiest and cheapest one I found. Finley loved it so much I think it will be tough to convince her to tear a loop off every day. I have a feeling this Christmas tree is still going to be a Christmas tree on the 25th!

If you're feeling extra crafty after making this advent calendar, try making this popsicle stick christmas tree!