Skip to Content

DIY Wooden Adult Advent Calendar

The holidays can be all-consuming. They are already creeping into November, and if you are anything like me, you might already have the itch to get out your festive decorations.

Today, we teamed up with some other amazing bloggers to share holiday projects that can be completed in just half an hour!

We decided to make an adult advent calendar, because counting down to Christmas isn’t just for the kiddos!

DIY Adult Advent Calendar

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

What you need:

What you do: 

First, grab a piece of 3/4″ thick plywood. We traced out our Christmas tree in about a 16″ wide by 19″ tall area.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

We used a jigsaw to cut along the lines of the tree. Simply follow along the pattern of the tree you drew.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted
DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

Next, we used a 1 1/4″ spade bit to drill 25 circles into our tree. We used a bottle cap to trace the circles before we drilled them. Be careful not to drill all the way through the wood. Just go deep enough for a bottle cap to sit inside.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

We also added a little triangle of wood behind the tree as a stand. We used a nail gun to attach it, but you could also use screws or wood glue.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

Next we spray painted the tree with Rust-Oleum’s Deep Turquoise spray. We didn’t want to go with a traditional straight up green and opted for something close but still looked great.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted
DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

We used a white paint pen to draw on the numbers of the 25 days of Christmas. We started at the top and worked our way down and left-to-right. It took two coats to really pop.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

Now we had our tree ready to count down the days! The plan is to drink a beer every day in December (not hard for us) and put the bottle cap into the right whole to count down the days.

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted
DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted

The bottle caps are perfect. They will look like little ornaments on the tree and are exactly what we wanted.

In the end, the tracing, cutting, sanding and drilling took about 20 minutes. The spray painting took two minutes and the numbers took less than five. We didn’t count the dry time (obvi) and we won’t count the wonderful time it will take us to drink each beer. But this project seriously took us less than 30 minutes and you could easily replicate it!

Be sure to click over and check out what the other amazing bloggers built in only half an hour!

Saws on Skates – Rustic DIY Christmas Village 

Hazel & Gold Designs – DIY Customizable Rustic Wooden Advent Calendar

Mother Daughter Projects – Mason Jar Floral Arranger

Handmade with Ashley – DIY Wooden Snowman

100 Things 2 Do – Christmas Card Display

What are you building for the holidays? Would you like to see anything specific from us?

DIY Adult Advent Calendar via Charleston Crafted
Yield: 1 advent calendar

How to make a wooden advent calendar

Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Check out how easy it is to build this DIY wooden advent calendar!

Materials

  • 3/4" plywood
  • Spray paint – ours is Rustoleum’s Deep Turquoise
  • Paint pen

Tools

  • Pencil
  • Jig saw
  • Sander or sanding block
  • Drill with 1.25″ spade bit

Instructions

  1. Use pencil to draw your Christmas tree shape onto the plywood.
  2. Cut out with jigsaw.
  3. Use 1.25" spade bit to cut out 25 holes for 25 days fo Christmas. Push only about 1/2 way thru the wood.
  4. Cut a triangle of plywood to use as a stand.
  5. Sand everything and wipe clean.
  6. Use nail gun or nails to attach stand to back of tree.
  7. Spray paint the entire thing.
  8. Use a paint pen to add numbers to each hole once the paint is dry.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Looking for something?

We’ve been doing this since 2012 so we have a LOT of blog posts!
Search stuff like: Ceiling Projects | DIY Plant Stands | Thrift Flips

Charleston Crafted logo banner

The Best DIY Advent Calendar Ideas For Kids And Adults | Simplify Create Inspire

Thursday 10th of June 2021

[…] calendars aren’t just for kids! Get adults in on the fun with this bottle cap calendar. For a generous twist, you could always gift 25 of their favourite beverage to go alongside it so […]

13 Simple DIY Christmas Wood Crafts to Make – Extra Large Planters For Outside

Friday 16th of October 2020

[…] Get the tutorial here: www.charlestoncrafted.com  […]

15 Simple DIY Christmas Wood Crafts to Make | SawsHub

Wednesday 18th of September 2019

[…] Get the tutorial here: www.charlestoncrafted.com  […]

Create With Joy

Saturday 18th of November 2017

What a great seasonal project! Congrats - you are one of our featured guests at Inspire Me Monday at Create With Joy this week! :-)

Ashley | Handmade with Ashley

Monday 13th of November 2017

haha, nice! That's a clever twist on the Advent Calendar :)

Comments are closed.
Skip to Instructions