Making a Christmas Pyramid Advent Calendar

Posted on November 23, 2009 at 12:12 am

One of the exciting and entertaining ways to count the days till Christmas is through the use of advent calendars. These calendars have new surprises in store each day as Christmas Day gets closer. A Christmas Pyramid Calendar makes the countdown more thrilling, as better surprises, like embellishments and decoration for a Christmas tree can be revealed each day. However, one of the most exciting ways to count the days till Christmas is to reveal new elements for a nativity scene each day, ending it on Christmas Eve with a tiny infant lying in a crib of hay. Advents starts every fourth Sunday prior to Christmas Day and lasts for 21 days until Christmas Eve. In this case, you will need 21 square boxes with equal sizes each, decorated with Christmas paper, or painted silver or gold. To make it look impressive you can alternate gold and silver, or and green. With the use of a sharp craft knife, take out the lids and rims from the three sides of each lid, leaving one rim intact. Coat a thin line of craft glue around rimless edges and dip in glitter. Set aside to dry. Make a hole at the edge of the lid opposite the remaining rim – just right in the center – and jab through a gold colored split pin. Open the split pin from inside the lid so that it stays together. Do the same thing on the rest of the lids. Number each lid from 1 to 21 with the use of number sticks. Secure the remaining rim of each lid to one side of each box with the use of craft glue or a glue gun. This is made to create a flap that opens. Give it time to dry thoroughly, after which you can start assembling your advent calendar. Put boxes 1-6 nest to each other and make sure they are well-aligned with the lids at the front and split pin handles at the bottom. With the use of craft glue or a glue gun, glue each box next to each other so you have a foundation row of six boxes. Glue together boxes 7-11 for the second row and put in on the first row like you were making a pyramid of blocks. Paste it in place. At this point, there should be half a box length of the bottom row and at each of the second row. Next, glue together boxes 12-15 and create the fourth row with boxes 16-18. This shall be followed by boxes 19-20 for the fifth row and the last box – number 21 – on top. You should now be able to form a pyramid stacked with 21 boxes with flaps in front that open upward. Place a Christmas tree ornament, a tiny gift, or a piece of nativity scene in each box. Box 21 should hold something special – a sparkling star for the Christmas tree, a decorated Christmas candle, or an infant for the crib. Put your pyramid on a shelf or on the window. You can make the decorations more elaborate by covering the sides with glitters or putting Christmas ornaments in each step.