Low-Prep DIY Advent Calendar for Kids

This Paper Scrolls DIY Advent Calendar is simple to put together. It looks lovely as part of your Christmas decor, and it’s interactive, making it fun for the kids. The best part is that it doesn’t take that long to assemble.

Over the years I’ve tried lots of different ideas for advent calendars with kids. This one might be my favorite. (Although I do still love the joy our Advent Picture Book Tree brings our family during the month of December.)

This paper scroll advent calendar is guaranteed to bring lots of fun to your family throughout the month as well. Each day kids get to unroll a paper scroll and find a fun Christmas themed coloring page or puzzle. There are so many options for what you can roll up into the scroll meaning you can make this fun for kids of all ages. You’ll see some ideas at the bottom of this article.

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Christmas coloring book, cardstock and ribbon

Supplies needed:

coloring book (or fun printouts of kids coloring pages/puzzles)
cardstock or construction paper in your favorite Christmas colors
ribbon
scotch tape
scissors (if you’re cutting pages out of a coloring book)
calendar countdown number stickers (optional)

Let’s get started!

Christmas coloring book with pages cut out

The hardest part of this DIY Advent Calendar is gathering the coloring pages. A Christmas coloring book is the quickest way to get hold of lots of pages of Christmas themed pictures to color and puzzles to solve (word searches, crosswords, mazes). Most coloring and activity books have pages and pages to choose from. You only need 24 (per child). Choose the pages you think will be fun for your kid(s), and cut them out.

For older kids a coloring book may not hold much interest. We want the advent calendar to be a fun thing for all the kids to look forward to each day. To make it more exciting, add in some free printables. You can find all kinds of things online for free. I was able to download a Christmas I Spy, Christmas Sudoku, color by numbers, an extreme dot-to-dot (that goes up to 1,000), and coloring pages for older kids. I’ll link to a few of those websites at the bottom of this post.

Christmas coloring page for advent calendar

Once you’ve gathered all your pages (remember you need 24 per child), the rest of this Paper Scrolls DIY Interactive Advent Calendar goes together fairly quickly.

Your next step is to roll the activity page(s) inside the Christmas cardstock or construction paper cover. You can roll multiple activity sheets into one scroll as long as you didn’t print anything onto super thick printer paper. Be sure to have the activity page lined up with the very bottom of your cardstock cover sheet and hold them both as you begin rolling.

Secure the rolled up paper scroll with one or two pieces of scotch tape. You can make that your finished product if you’re pressed for time.

Or you can add some finishing touches such as tying a ribbon around each scroll and adding a calendar number sticker. If you don’t have the number stickers, you can use a sharpie and write the countdown numbers directly on the paper scrolls.

The final step is to find a place to display your DIY Interactive Advent Calendar. I chose to hang our scrolls with clothespins on a piece of kitchen twine strung over our fireplace mantle. But I’m sure you could come up with many other ways to display the scrolls (even in a basket).

I hope you and the kids have fun counting down to Christmas with your DIY Interactive Paper Scrolls Advent Calendar. I can already sense the excitement of opening a new Christmas themed activity each day.

Please take a moment to pin the image below for others to see. Thanks!

Remember, if you don’t want to use the activity pages in a Christmas coloring book, you can visit some of these sites below (and plenty others) to download free Christmas printables in a variety of activities for a variety of ages.