Our family gets so much joy from our holiday advent that I decided to make a Halloween countdown for October. This project is primarily made with glue, so it’s quick to assemble with no sewing required.
Related: Check out our entire Halloween archive of spooky decorations, recipes and more! You’ve Been Booed (with Free Printable), Halloween Cake Pops, Caramel Apples.
Aunt Emma (as she is known in my house) came up with the idea to make our girls a Halloween countdown calendar. I immediately said “YES, YOU’RE BRILLIANT.”
So why not start this fun (and very spooky!) tradition to enjoy a little bit of Halloween magic all month long in October? I pretty much set out to make a Halloween version of our Christmas advent calendar since we love that one so much.
We created this Halloween activity printable. My suggestion is to use a mix of activities and then in some of the days, just put in a candy. And, use a calendar to strategically place the movies on the weekends (or whatever adjustments are best for your family’s routine).
Feel free to add your own activities and traditions. The printable we made is mainly just stuff my little kids would enjoy and nostalgia from my childhood. Other things you can include are stickers or coloring pages. Customize it to fit your kiddos!
As far as the DIY goes, this is a pretty simple project. I completed it over a two-day period. I probably spent about 4-5 hours on it. It would take half the time if you just eliminated the embroidery stitching, but I really enjoy doing that and like the look of it.
Supplies:
-dowel rod
-large piece of felt for banner (I got a half yard at the craft store).
–colored felt for pockets
-embellishments for pockets (I used a lot of buttons, some embroidery, stamps with permanent ink, a bit of paint, and some wooden stars).
My complete banner is 18 inches wide and 32 inches long. Each pocket is 3×3 inches.
The first step is to cut out your banner and the 31 pockets. I embellished all the pockets before gluing them down. You can also sew them if you like.
I like to lay them all out and embellish until it feels done. I did a lot of stamped buttons and stars. The buttons are sewn on and the wood stars are glued on.
After all the embellishments were done and dry, I used glue on three sides of each piece of felt to create a pocket.
Next, use glue to create a loop that holds your dowel rod in. Then, tie a string to each side of the rod to hang it on the wall.
As you can see in my photos below, I also used halloween garland to make mine a little more spooky. This pumpkin button is so cute, too.
Here’s the completed calendar! I can’t wait for October to start using it with our girls, but I wanted to post it here early enough for you to have time to get all the supplies and make yours before October begins!
It looks so cute with a garland hanging around it too (here’s a DIY for a cute wooden spider garland!). Wishing you a magical spooky season. Soak it in! xx. Elsie
More Halloween Ideas
- Halloween activities for children
- Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
- The best Halloween decor for your home
- 15 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations
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Supplies
- dowel rod
- large piece of felt for banner ((I got a half yard at the craft store))
- colored felt for pockets
- embellishments for pockets ((I used a lot of buttons, some embroidery, stamps with permanent ink, a bit of paint, and wooden starts.)
Instructions
- The first step is to cut out your banner and the 31 pockets. I embellished all the pockets before gluing them down (you can also sew them down, but I just moved and I don’t even know where my sewing machine is at the moment).
- I like to lay them all out and embellish until it feels done. I did a lot of stamped buttons and stars. The buttons are sewn on and the wood stars are glued on.After all the embellishments were done and dry, I used glue on three sides of each piece of felt to create a pocket.
- Next, use glue to create a loop that holds your dowel rod in. Then, tie a string to each side of the rod to hang it on the wall.
I’m getting ready to have a baby and I can’t wait to make this and the Christmas one to have them ready! The idea of using a stamp with permanent ink is genius!
I made this for my 4 year old grandson. HUGE hit. SO ADORABLE and fun!
This is SO cute!!
This is awesome ! I can’t help for my baby to be able to understand spooky season and to this with her ! (She’s turning two in october, we’re not there yet)
I made one of these for my nephews and they loved it! Such a fun idea!
I made this countdown calendar for my niece and nephew after listening to your Podcast episodes about creating joyful moments! Especially loved your ideas for the activities each day, as I had to ship this and didn’t want to risk shipping candy. I included some cute Halloween stickers, tattoos, and little toys in each pocket. Such a fun activity and a personal way to bring into unexpected silliness into loved one’s lives!
I just finished a mini version of your advent calendar with the felt stockings, (it took me a few weekends) but this Halloween calendar looks easier to make, and JUST as cute! This Halloween one has inspired me to make a September-fall countdown calendar, maybe with little cutout leaves and acorns, etc. Thanks for the inspiration.
Such a fun idea! Love it!!!!
The Halloween calender is a great idea, I do love using felt for projects, and I love your choice of colours. Lovely!
Such a cute idea!! Definitely going to make something like this for my family.
We live in Australia and *finally* halloween is taking of a little here in the past few years – yay!! So – like most Aussie kids – I’ve always been jealous of you guys on this holiday and didn’t want my kids to miss out 😉 so I’ve been doing a countdown calendar for years with my kids, but we do trick or treat ones. Eg toffee apples (you guys call them candy apples I think) but with onions inside; chocolate that look like rocks; and our fave memory of all – I just put potatoes in one day, but my then 2.5 yr old youngest starting eating them then got so upset when we had to take ‘my atato’ away so she didn’t get sick. We talk about it every halloween. I’ve never made a proper hanging banner for them though, so this year I’ll be doing this and each pocket will have a clue in it to help them find the hidden trick or treat.
Your lives and work bring so much encouragement and fun to your audience. Love, love, love, and always look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
What kind of glue did you use? I’m thinking I will make it tomorrow and we will only be behind one day. 😉
This is so fun, wish my kiddo was a kid. I’m looking for ideas for Halloween for our little town to make it really fun (not too scary) in case most of the traditions have to be curtailed ? I need to go look at the cardboard full moon set I remember from last year.. I was thinking maybe ghosts made out of a big helium balloon with lights inside the sheets ? There are many good sized trees on either side of the street to hang stuff from. Any cool ideas are so appreciated. Thanks Dale
I’m clearing my schedule and doing this today. Right now.
awe YAYYYY!
Is it 32” to the point or to the edge?
To the point. xx!
This is very cute. What kind of glue is used here? A glue gun?
Hi! I recommend fabric glue, not hot glue. XX!
this is so cute! my daughter would go crazy over a halloween advent candy calendar!
You guys always come up with the cutest ideas! I was thinking of doing this for my kids and I love this design!
I was just thinking yesterday, it has been ages since they posted an awesome felt project! and this is worth the wait 🙂
Awe thank you so much!!! I love felt projects too!
This is so pretty & I love this as a tradition! My kids have a couple of food allergies and this would be such a great way to make Halloween special for them!