Homemade Advent Calendars

This amscan wedding cake boxes come 24 in a pack and is perfect for making Christmas advent calendars. The 25th item is usually the Christmas present that goes in the middle, where else? I have decided a candle should go in the middle, coz I checked out youtube and that's what everyone else gets on Christmas, advent calendars and candles.

Each box looks like a real slice of wedding cake and when you put it all together, it creates a perfect circle. The box itself is tiny, about credit card size so not many things can fit in except gift cards or sample sizes. It was fun looking for things to fit in.

I sealed each box with favor stickers that are a lot easier to use than regular sticky tape. It's also a lot prettier. If you print gift tags like name cards than that will fit into each cake slice box as well.

Most of the items are from Spotlight, including a round shaped candle with 2 wicks that fits perfectly in the middle of this circle. But I also went to Guardian, Watsons, Toys'r'us, Supermarkets and Jap/Korean home goods stores.

 Presented on a reusable tray. I went everywhere looking for a tray large enough to hold these boxes together and in the end I got these melamine trays from Crate & Barrel, I love their new melamine range that looks like wood/Jap pottery/Euro Folk Art Clay.

The large fish tray actually holds 27 boxes, 3 more than usual. I sealed these boxes with Christmas sticker gift tags and it turned out really colourful. Crate & Barrel has really nice candles on sale but for kids I thought I would put a small gift in the middle instead.

The other set of 21 boxes (24 - 3) I placed on a paella pan purchased from Spotlight. This red paella pan is a little small, there's a bigger size but its in black. If I put 2 eyes on it, it looks like a doggie face.

I also used a Wilton Round Cake Pan purchased from Spotlight, its the largest size available. I thought about stuffing the edges with fern/leaves but ended up stuffing it with cookies instead, wrapped in colourful tissue.