Homeade Advent Calendar

I know that it's after the 1 December but better late than never, right? I've been wanting to make an advent calendar for our family for some time now. And now that E is old enough to understand the concept more or less (and the fact that I'm on a mission to create some new Christmas traditions) I thought I would get to it!

What you need:
Colourful/ decorated paper like wrapping paper or scrap booking paper
Decorations and embellishments
Scissors
Glue
Ribbon to string through and hang
Fun things to fill it with (I will talk about that later)

I tried to get E involved in the process of making it, but as he's a 2 year old boy he quickly lost interest and went to his bike :)

Step 1.
Cut and glue the paper pouches. You can make whatever size pouches suit you, but I cut an A4 in half (A5) and made them from that size.

Step 2.
Glue it together. I folded it over towards the middle, and then folded the bottom piece up and glued it down. Place something heavy on it while it dries.

Step 3.
Decorate and punch holes at the top. I used a normal punch and made 2 holes along the top, on the fold, to string the ribbon through. (My camera sucks by the way)

Step 4.
String the ribbon through and hang it somewhere the kids can't reach. Because they will catch the drift that there are yummy things in the and will want to get to it, lol. Also high enough that hubby's head doesn't bang it as he walks past. (We chose to hang ours on the arch walkway through to the kitchen)

What to fill it with:
I got some great ideas which I tweaked to suit our family.
There are small sweets each day - one for E and one for mommy. I used quality streets or whatever suits you fine.
I put a few small cars for E in about 3 days

This calendar is also heavily activity based because I feel that it is important to focus on family bonding time. Luckily there is a bunch of things going on this time of the year, and daddy will be home on his holiday as well during this time - so I'm taking the opportunity to get out the house and have a stay-cation. And this ties in very well with the calendar and doing fun things as a family each day.
Ideas include:
Baking Christmas cookies
Making wrapping paper
Treasure hunts
Outings to various fun places
Picnics
Carols by Candlelight  visits
Milkshakes at his favourite restaurants
(I'm going to share a post of a bunch of fun family activities I found in Cape Town)

Let me know what your ideas were for an advent calendar!