With a simple doodle prompt each day, we turn our minimalist advent calendar into a treasured keepsake this year.
My 4-year-old has been really into doodling lately and this year I decided to let him create his very own Christmas ornaments through our advent calendar. Each ornament is filled with fun drawing prompts inspired by his current favourite things.
Watch the quick version here ▼
If you have little artists at home, this holiday season could be the perfect opportunity to try this. It’s a budget-friendly, sugar-free, non-toy alternative that keeps the festive spirit alive and lets you make beautiful memories together every day leading up to Christmas.
Capture your little artist’s imagination through daily doodle
Every year, it’s become our family tradition to prepare a DIY advent calendar. Since last year, I’ve decided to go low-waste by skipping toys, which often get outplayed quickly.
Our last year’s advent calendar was all about doing little activities together every day, and it was such fun. But unfortunately, this year will be a lot busier for us. With work and our upcoming winter holiday, I knew we wouldn’t have much time to prepare or set up daily activities. So we decided to keep things simple.
With my little one really into scribbling and drawing these days, I thought it would be a great idea to capture his childhood imagination through a daily doodle project for this year’s advent calendar.
Each day’s doodle only takes about 5–10 minutes to complete, so it’s quick and easy to fit into our busy schedule. Of course, my son is welcome to spend more time or make the drawing as detailed and creative as he likes, but the idea is to keep the advent calendar activity simple yet still fun.
DIY easy ornament-making advent calendar with fun drawing ideas
This quick daily doodle keeps our advent calendar tradition meaningful, without toys or sweets, and gives my son a small moment each day to slow down and create something.
It’s not only creative but also incredibly affordable, and it’ll hopefully become a sweet keepsake we can keep for years. Plus, he was already so excited when I set it up the other day!
Materials
- 24 wooden Christmas ornaments (I chose classic bauble shapes, but any shape works)
- Paint markers (we use Posca)
- Strings for hanging
Since this is meant to be a keepsake, the key is to use good-quality markers that make the drawings vibrant and long-lasting. Posca markers are a great choice. They’re opaque, fade-resistant, and work well on a variety of surfaces.
Our 24 advent calendar drawing prompts
Here are the 24 drawing prompts for our one-doodle-a-day advent calendar this year, filled with my son’s current favourite things:
- Myself
- Mama
- Papa
- My dog
- My best friend
- My favourite food
- My favourite animal
- A happy face
- Something sparkly
- What I want to do when I grow up
- My favourite sport
- My favourite toy
- A silly face
- A magical creature
- Something that makes me laugh
- My earliest memory
- My favourite vehicle
- Something I want to build
- My future house
- My favourite cartoon character
- My favourite story
- Something from my favourite song
- Something about Christmas
- Anything!
How I prepared the advent calendar
I wrote the numbers 1–24 on the back of each wooden bauble, along with a drawing prompt. The other side was left blank as a canvas for my son to freely interpret the prompt.
I hung the ornaments on the the door outside his bedroom with the numbered side facing out. Each day, we take the ornament for that date, let my son draw on it, and then hang it back with his design facing out.
As the biggest fan of his creations, I’m excited to see all 24 little drawings come together as a charming collection of ornaments.
After the holiday season, these ornaments will be preserved as a Christmas time capsule for us to enjoy for years to come.
A festive collection of creativity
Minimalist, fun, and full of memories! I’m glad I can keep our DIY advent calendar tradition going, despite the holiday rush this year.
