Matchbox Advent Calendar

This has to be the cutest little advent calendar that ever walked the earth!

ahhhh….ok, so…you know what I mean.

Teeny, tiny drawers filled with teeny, tiny prizes. Absolutely adorable and better still–it cost well under $5 to make. You could actually make one of these for each of your children and spend less than you would buying them a Happy Meal. And this was just soooo fun.

The main purchase is the little match boxes. I found them at the grocery store and get this–packs of ten were 93 cents! You’ll need 3- 10 packs.

Empty the matches into a large Ziplock bag and put them in your storage.

Be on the lookout for tiny prizes…

You’ll be surprised at what you’ll find once you start looking.

Tape the boxes together in groups that will be stacked up in columns of 8 boxes.

I did a 3 stack and a 5 stack. Then I did the rest in groups of 4.

Now group them together and make sure they are all level with each other.

First I taped two columns together and then all three. Don’t worry about how ugly the tape is–it’s not going to show.

Find some skinny, Christmasy ribbon and cut into 24 pieces about 3 inches long.

I used wide packaging tape to stick them in loops to the bottom of each box. It’s more sticky and sturdy–and we want the pull loops to stay put. I experimented with big loops and shorter loops–the shorter ones worked much better.