Remember when a chocolate Advent calendar was a rarity and not the norm? When I was a little girl I got to open one window in four (brothers and sisters) and there was no chocolate until I was a teenager.

Now it seems you can't find an advent calendar that doesn't feature chocolate or is heavily branded with a company or character.

So we've been rounding up some alternative ideas for make-your-own advent calendars. We've tried to pick ones that are easy to do )although some of the ones on our Pinterest board require a bit more skill.)

Here are four of our favourites.

 

 

An advent for grown-ups this one: you'd need a board, some card, some pins and some tree ornaments. Very pretty.

 

 

A good one if you happen to have a lot of baby socks lying around your house - all you'd need is clothes pegs and some card to write the numbers on. Then fill the socks with whatever you like , chocolate, toys, snacks or things to do.

 

 

 

I totally love this idea - get a selection of Christmas books (library or charity shop) and wrap them up. Open one a day and read it with your children. Ace.

 

 

 

 

Needed: paper, pen, double sided sticky tape. And a space to display them. You could add one a day until Christmas or put them all out at once and hide your advent chocolates under them.

 

 

Biscuits! Self explanatory, this one - we'll be posting some recipes for biscuits that work as Christmas decorations next week. 

So let us know, do you have an advent calendar? Have you ever made your own? Do any of these ideas tickle your fancy? And if so, what would you put inside?

Don't forget to have a look at all our other advent ideas on Pinterest.