Once you have kids, advent calendars start to play a mighty important role in teaching your kids patience. And stretching the activities over 24 days helps spread the Christmas magic throughout the month which I love. In our home we have done everything from a DIY lego advent calendar to an activity a day, so this year I wanted to do something new. This modern wooden tree advent calendar is fun for the kids because they get to add an ornament to the tree everyday, and fun for me because it is just so pretty to look at.

While it does take a little bit of wood work to make this tree, the only power tool that is needed is a miter saw. Follow along as I walk you through the steps to make your own modern wooden tree.

The Supplies:

• One 8′ long 1″ by 4″ piece of select pine and one 6′ long 1″ by 4″ piece of select pine
• Gorilla Wood Glue
• Miter Saw
• Acrylic Paint

 Begin by cutting your wood to the following sizes:

8′ board – Three 2.5′ long pieces with 30° mitered ends to create a trapezoid shape.

6′ board – 1 each of 23.25″ piece, 16.75″ piece, 11.5″ piece, and 6.5″ piece cut with 30° ends to create a trapezoid shape.

Once you have all your boards cut, use the wood glue on the ends of the boards and form your triangle. Use heavy weights or paint cans to keep the boards in place while the glue dries.

Let your glue dry overnight, then the next day come back and use the same wood glue to attach the shelves inside the triangle.

Once the glue has dried for another 24 hours. Use your acrylic craft paint to paint the front of the the outer triangle.

Once the paint is dry, your modern wooden tree advent calendar is ready to hang or sit on a table. If you are going to hang your tree, you can add picture hanging hooks to the back with a screw driver and then hang from screws in the wall (make sure they are into a stud or you are using a molly to support the weight of the tree).

Once your tree is hanging, it is ready for your kids (or you, I won’t tell) to add one new ornament each day all the way up until Christmas.

Of course I filled it up to show you how cute it will look filled with all sorts of ornaments. By the way, can we talk about how adorable these ornaments from Target are? I mean there is some serious cute going on over there. Plus, if you look closely you will see the DIY swan and flamingo ornaments I shared with you a few days ago.

Now don’t feel like you have to use these cutesy ornaments for your tree either. Regular ornaments will look pretty cute in there too. And if you don’t have kids, or they are grown and don’t care about things like counting down to Christmas. Just build this tree and fill it with your favorite ornaments to display during the holidays instead.

So, tell me, which ornaments are your favorites? My kids have already claimed the food themed ones, and my favorites are the little elves and that deer head.