December starts next week and the countdown to Christmas will shift into high gear. Just 30 sleeps until Christmas Day. In today’s post, I discuss one of my favourite traditions—the advent calendar. We’ll start with a look at the history of using an advent calendar to count down to Christmas. Then, I’ve got some low-waste advent calendar ideas for you.

This post was originally published in November 2020 and updated in September 2023.

When I was a child, it was always so exciting when our parents would get the advent calendar out. We had an old-fashioned paper calendar with a small window for each day with a Christmas-themed picture behind the window. My sisters and I would take turns opening the little window each day. On Christmas Eve, there was a big double window. We would fight over who got to open that one. Even though we knew what was behind the window, there was something magical about getting to be the one to open it.

The history of the advent calendar

To this day, the advent calendar is a tradition in many households, but where did the tradition begin?

According to TheFactSite.com, the first advent calendar as we know it today originated in Germany in the early 1900s. The Reichhold and Lang printing office produced 30 different advent calendar patterns until the 1930s. Like the advent calendar I remember from my childhood, they made the calendars out of paper. Behind the doors were pictures and sometimes chocolate.

Production of the calendars halted during World War II, mainly because of a shortage of cardboard and chocolate. Starting in the 1950s, the calendars reappeared and are still popular today. Most modern advent calendars are made out of cardboard and plastic and contain chocolate treats.

Our reusable advent calendars

I’ve never been a fan of the disposable calendars, even before my eco-conscious days. In our house, we have two reusable advent calendars.

I picked this one up about 10 years ago. It’s made of wood and is shaped like a Christmas tree. There is a door for each day containing a small wooden ornament. Each day, we open up the door, remove the ornament, and hang it on one of the pegs on the wooden tree.

While I love the zero-waste aspect of the wooden calendar, advent calendars are more fun when there’s at least a little chocolate involved.

We’ve had this fabric advent calendar since our girls were little. It has a small pocket for each day that I fill with small treats. These days, I usually fill it with foil-wrapped chocolates. Over the years I’ve done a few different things.

Fun low-waste ideas to fill your advent calendar

If chocolate isn’t your thing or you’re just looking to switch things up a bit, here are some other fun ideas to fill the calendar pockets:

• Money—coins fit perfectly in the pockets and most kids love money!
• Pencils or crayons
• Printable coupons to be redeemed for services like a day off from dish-washing duty, or fun activities like a family movie night or building a snowman. For creative ideas, check out this post from Smelly Socks and Garden Peas.
• Stickers
• Hair accessories. As a mom of two girls, we went through a lot of barrettes and hair elastics over the years.
• Small Christmas ornaments
• Miniature figurines
• Erasers
• Notes with clues for a fun scavenger hunt. I did this for a couple of years. I wrote clues to find a hidden present on one or two days. The presents were Christmas-themed things like socks, pyjamas or ornaments that I wanted the girls to have before Christmas.

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How do you fill your advent calendar?

Even though our kids are grown up now, we still enjoy marking the countdown to Christmas with our advent calendar, although these days we pretty much stick to chocolate!

Do you have any creative ideas to add to this list? Tell us about them below.