It’s the middle of November and a little over 1 month to Christmas. And I began collecting cardboard toilet rolls since September. I have enough now to make an Advent Calendar, plus some Christmas Crackers. Maybe even a Christmas Tree Star.
A few years ago I made a linear advent calendar out of toilet rolls. Each roll was wrapped in Christmas print paper. Numbers were printed and stuck on the outside. Inside went a treat and a little happiness moment saying. Some deep, some helpful, mostly funny. They were then tied to a ribbon, so they hung in a date order line.
Then I saw a house shape advent calendar and that had to be the next one. It sort of suited the whole restoration home thing. Also I didn’t have much Christmas / winter designed paper that year. But I did have lots of plain brown paper that needed reusing. I printed off a Santa stuck in a chimney image that I put in the top of the chimney on the house. That made me smile each time I saw it.
As the house design was such a fun – and easy – one to make, this year I am going to do something similar. But in a tree shape. You put your toilet rolls upright, in a classic Christmas Tree shape and glue each toilet roll to the next. (For extra strength you can attach a backing of cardboard.) Then create green discs, with numbers, to cover the holes. The bottom stem is covered in brown discs. Then stuff with fun stuff.
If there are enough toilet rolls, Christmas Crackers are on the agenda again. But, without including the snap strip (the thing when you pull a Christmas cracker and it makes a pop as the cracker comes apart). Having tried these strips before, they don’t work well with toilet rolls as the roll is too solid to pull apart easily in a tug of war.
For those of you non-British, you may be wondering what a Christmas Cracker is? Here’s a link to the History of Christmas Crackers for your reading pleasure. I am not sure why I like Christmas Crackers. Maybe it is the concept of a little surprise. But half the fun of living in different cultures is you get to adopt the traditions you like and make them your own.
And finally, if there are still enough toilet rolls left, I have seen some amazing designs for a Christmas tree star made out of them. Pumpjack lamented our Christmas tree not having a star on our first tree, so since then ideas go on the craft board each year for a new one. (The previous ones are recycled as ornaments.)
Normally we compost our toilet rolls, when there isn’t a project in mind. But in researching crafts you can make from toilet rolls, there is such inspiration. Go on, have a google. Not only is what people make great fun to see, you may be inspired yourself to try something.
PS.
If you are not the crafty type, I can recommend looking on Etsy for some truly nifty and unique advent calendars. There are chocolate ones, countdown ornaments, personalised, stationary surprises, and even kit models.
And if you are looking for little gifts to put in your advent calendars, we have a number of tiny items in Our Shop. Here’s a sampling of what we offer in our shop.
(Simply click on an image to see more options – including tiny.)