DIY LEGO Advent Calendar

Every year I hear stories about how the pre-made LEGO advent calendar sells out in like a week on amazon. The year before last I tried to do a pre-packed calendar with my son and he was not at all impressed with the selection that was available.

Now my son is mad about lego and being the “crafty” mom I am I decided to make a little DIY LEGO advent calendar for him last year from a Christmas LEGO set I had stashed in the back of the cupboard. This was a huge hit with my son who eagerly awaited the days little pouch every morning to continue his LEGO Christmas building.

So here is a little run down I wanted to share about how I got this going in the fist place 😀 Hopefully it will inspire you in someway too!

How to prep for a DIY LEGO Advent Calendar

First up you will want to purchase a Christmas set to divide up into 24 days. Make sure your set has a number of items that can actually be split over so many days. For things such as houses I would have them build parts over 3-4 days which went down well with the kiddo.

The other thing you will need are bags or pouches to hold each days build. Last year I made simple felt pouches and this year I am using paper bags with labels.

Thirdly you will want to find a quite place to sort your lego out. I went to hide out in the bedroom with the curtains closed. Little curious kids kept coming around to see what I was up too! Peeking in the windows and all.

The simple rundown for a lego advent calendar

Take out the manuals for the lego advent calendar you have in mind. Make sure to note how many pages there are and divide those by 24 to get the average page spacing you will need. The next step is to make a logical decision on how far you are going to let the child build every day.

Grab a pen and paper and make notes on the pages you have selected. For example day 1 we have a santa minifig to build, day 2 there is a complete reindeer. Having the child build smaller things that feel complete can halt some of the “this isn’t done” frustration feelings. This is why I mainly left the buildings till last.

Use some tags for the days and write the page numbers of the instruction manual on the back so that you and your child know which pages you will be building that day.

Sorting the LEGO build

The next parts might take some time. I sorted the entire set out into the 24 pouches in about an hour and a half. It is wise to use a tray to contain small parts, they tend to get everywhere.

Parcel small parts into their bags and securely close with a tag so you know which bag is which!

Once all bags are completed store them on the tray or in basket. I just loved the colorfulness of the felt pouches.

Now you can mark down on your lego advent calendar every day and open the days bag / pouch to build!

Each day I provided a tray to work on with the instruction manual and the pouch which also had the page numbers written on it.

My son really enjoyed his DIY LEGO advent calendar and we are doing this for the second year this year! This year I have an entire Christmas Train set! We are going to have a blast putting that one together.