DIY Salve Jar Advent Calendar

Have you tried doing an advent calendar leading up to Christmas? This is often a fun tradition, especially with kids, to help keep the focus on family and serving rather than on getting and receiving. Even if you don’t have children, it can be a great way to keep up the holiday cheer and count down to the holiday. So, regardless of your circumstances, you can make this advent calendar a fun tradition to start this year!

Using salve jars as an advent calendar allows you to hide activity ideas, recipes, diffuser blends in sample vials, chocOILates, symbols of the activity, or other small items or treats inside that can be enjoyed each day leading up to Christmas. The salve jars are attached to a magnet board or refrigerator with the use of strong magnets glued to the bottoms of the jars.

This cute advent calendar we are sharing today uses stickers with numbers on them that you apply to the tops of the salve jars, and then the salve jars are arranged in the pattern of a Christmas tree. This calendar also features labels listing various holiday activities, essential oil crafts and recipes, service ideas, and more that can be applied to the inside of the salve jars. You can also include the provided recipe cards that correlate with the activity ideas.

Here are the downloadable files:
Christmas Tree Number Stickers (print them on these labels)
Activity Idea Stickers (print them on these labels)
Recipe Cards (print them on regular or card stock paper)
Christmas Tree Pattern

If you have other activities you would like to do, you can always print them out on regular paper, cut them up, and place them in the salve jars on the days you wish to do each activity. Also, if you would rather create your own designs for the numbers, these blank labels work well on these salve jars or these tin containers.

To use, simply start on December 1st with salve jar #1, and complete the activity for that day. Continue each day with the salve jar that correlates with the date until you reach Christmas Day!

Salve Jar Advent Calendar

Time: 30 minutes | Difficulty: Moderate

Supplies:

• Blank Circle Labels (use with this Christmas tree numbers template and this activities template, or create your own design)
• Super glue or magnet adhesive to attach the magnets (Note: hot glue seemed to work well for us, but we did have a couple magnets fall off if we accidentally dropped the salve jar.)
• 24 strong magnets (1/2″–1″ neodymium magnets work really well (you could even do 3 tiny 1/8″ magnets on each salve jar), but 1″ ceramic magnets also work)
• 24 salve jars (the 1/2 oz. or 1 oz. size; the 1 oz. size fits the chocOILates) or 24 tin containers.
• Items to include inside, such as recipe cards, ChocOILates, sample vials for diffuser blends, etc.
• Magnet board for displaying your advent calendar

Instructions:

1. Use the templates to print the labels, or create your own.
2. Attach the magnets to the bottoms of the salve jars. Attach the number labels to the tops of the salve jars.
3. Decide what activities you want to do, and assign them to the day you want to do them. Then apply the activity stickers inside the associated salve jar. You can always rearrange the activities by changing the lids.
4. Add any other items associated with the activity, such as recipe cards, sample vials for diffuser blends, etc.
5. Attach the salve jars to your magnet board.
6. To use, starting on December 1st, open the salve jar with the number that correlates with the date and complete the activity. Continue every day as you count down to Christmas!

Update 11/18/2016: We now have these small tins that would work really well for this project! Check them out here: 2 oz. Tin Can with Window Lid.