A little back story on how the beer advent calendar came about... a few weeks before I even had the idea in my head last year, Seth and I were at Costco and we came across a pre-made beer advent calendar. I had never seen or even thought of one of those and I thought it was genius... and perfect for my beer loving husband! I had asked Seth if he would like it but he took a look at the beers in it and decided that he didn't think he would like enough to make it worthwhile. Plus it was pretty expensive, so if he didn't think he would like the beers, I didn't want to try it. BUT when I shared about seeing it in a blog post a few days later, Desiree casually commented that I should make my own. And an idea was born! I absolutely LOVED her idea and couldn't believe I didn't think of it earlier, so I immediately got to searching Pinterest (because duh) for how to make one. To my surprise, I could barely find anything! How had this not been done before? I was shocked. So, without Pinterest's help (*audible gasp*), I made Seth a beer advent calendar for Christmas!
Going in, I had NO clue how I wanted to make it work, so I did what anyone would do... I headed to Hobby Lobby and hoped for inspiration to pop out at me. And luckily for me, it did! I literally walked around the whole store twice before I landed on this idea. I found this Merry Christmas trunk, googled how tall beer bottles are, and guesstimated that I could fit 24 beer bottles in the trunk. So at 50% off, I picked up the trunk, some crinkle paper for packing purposes, and some Christmas paper. If I were to estimate, I'd say the total came to maybe $15-$18 for these three things.
Then came the actual wrapping of the beer bottles so he couldn't tell what they were. I knew I needed to wrap the main label but then some had additional labels as well as a cap so I had to get creative.
For the top label on the neck of the bottle, I cut a strip of paper and had planned to wrap it around and call it a day. But I ended up not liking how that looked, so I cut a little off and wrapped it a little tighter and liked that look better.
And at this point, I was pretty much done! It was pretty easy but was very timely. If I had to guess, I'd say the whole thing probably took 2-3 hours.
I put the bottles in the trunk and added some crinkly paper for packing purposes.
See full, detailed directions on how to make your own Beer Advent Calendar here or pin for later here!
And there you have it! A DIY beer advent calendar! I'm very happy with how it turned out and Seth was SO excited to find out that this was his gift.
Each day, I let him "open" the beer in the morning so he could see what it was and then put it in the fridge to cool so he could have it with dinner. I didn't really know what I was doing and am definitely no beer expert, but he ended up really liking the beers I chose! I actually had him do a little recap on the beers, so if you need some inspiration, check out this post and see which his favorites were!
Basically, I just went to Total Wine and More (they have a giant single beer selection!), looked in the section for the kinds he likes, and picked top rated, cheap-ish beers. And by cheap-ish, I meant they all cost between $1.99-$3.99 per beer, so if you're trying to plan, total I probably spent about $65 on this gift.
And overall? It was a HUGE hit!
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I loved this last year and still love it now!! I seriously need to make it for Drew this year. He'd really enjoy it. :)
ReplyDeleteI love that you shared this now, because I still have time to make one for Russ... hhhmmmmmm Maybe I will do it. I need to go look around the local liquor store and decide. This could be a great gift for him.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fun idea!!!
ReplyDeleteMy husband would love this idea. Maybe next year, as he just got tons of beer from all over the country for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. It would be an overkill, but definitely saving this idea! Thanks for hosting and happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteNo joke, the number one repinned item I have on Pinterest is THIS beer advent- such a great DIY gift!!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great idea :) I would totally do this, except we don't have many stores that have single beer selections (no Total Wine stores here).
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this. Super cute idea!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an awesome idea!!
ReplyDeleteThis is still one of the cutest things ever! If I can get my act together in the next week, I may make Conor one!
ReplyDeleteMy husband would LOVE this!! I'm thinking I'll try to pull it off on a smaller scale for him :) Thanks for all the tips!
ReplyDeleteI still love this! You did such a great job with everything.
ReplyDelete