A Daiso Advent Calendar DIY

Ever since moving to Japan, I have loved decorating for Christmas each year. When I was single and living in my own apartment, I spent the holiday season and most of my paycheck on having extravagant Christmas parties at my place. I would always bake my own cakes in my tiny oven and cook a ton of food. Decorating was a blast because after my first initial "Daiso Christmas" I didn't need much else in the way of supplies. I had already bought the basics for dirt cheap. The nice thing is, even with inflation, Daiso christmas is still dirt cheap and may have gotten better over the years. This year I found some trees that came with all the trim in the box. 

45 cm or 24 in seems like a pretty tiny tree, however when you think about how most people live in tiny apartments, this size seems perfect. I think I spent the same 300 yen on our tree but it is twice the height. I then had to spend a bit more on all the decorations, but I love it. I have a black and silver theme, so I had to get creative with black ribbon and such. Daiso has two full aisles of decorations. And it seems to just grow each year.

There were also these two at Daiso at the beginning of the Christmas decoration season this year. I love them and would gladly have paid the 500 yen for one, but alas I didn't have the money at the time and now them seem to be sold out. Oh well, it is just an opportunity lost. 

Something new that I did this year is make an advent calendar. I spent less than 1200 yen on treats per child and 400 yen on the wrappings. 

I already had a few things on hand for the calendar which helped, including a pack of tiny wooden clips and string. 

Most of the treats are from multi pack items.

These gummy candies end up at less than 15 yen per roll which is ideal for this cheap momma. I could have gone even cheaper and just bought hard candy but I wanted some of the treats to really feel special. 

Some of them were bought at the old timey store in the mall.

But I easily could have bought everything from Daiso and my kids would be content. 

I lined up all the candy and sorted it so we wouldn't be getting to many similar candies too many days in a row, and separated per each kids preference. 

I then decorated the white paper bags I had bought. I needed fifty bags total, each day until Christmas twice. 

I punched holes in the top of the bags and strung shiny tinsel wire through to make bows. 

Start by twisting the wire once.

Bend each wire as if to tie a bow but don't pass the loops through. Instead twist the strands where they cross.

The take the top curves and give them a twist so they look like the loops of the bow.

Taadaa. I found this just looked neater and was faster than trying to tie them in actual bows.

I then strung some yarn on our only blank empty wall using thumbtacks.

It is a pretty impressive display. This project took twice as long as expected. I spent nearly five hours from start to almost finish. There are a few bags not decorated on because I needed it up before my son came home and made a mess of things.

I am really glad I did it though. We are going to be having a "Daiso Christmas" just like my first year here. Cheap but full of cheer.