Yahoo Lifestyle 
Kmart shopper's 'incredible' DIY advent calendar using $4 item: 'Need to do this'
A woman has gone viral on TikTok with her unique advent calendar for her children.
With the holiday season fast approaching, Christmas trees being installed at home, and festive music on rotation in stores around the country, shoppers have begun purchasing advent calendars to count down to December 25. There are plenty of advent calendars to choose from in 2024, from chocolate and alcohol to mini puzzles and candles.
One social media user has recently shared how they managed to create their own unique advent calendar using items from home and a few additional products from Kmart. Corinne Mayfair (@corinne_mayfair) said it’s her “favourite Christmas tradition” to wrap 24 books for her children and let them open one each day in the lead-up to Christmas.
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She explained that she often reuses the same set of Christmas books each year, wraps them in $4 brown craft paper from Kmart, and decorates them using a $10 pack of acrylic paint markers from the retail store.
“I love that it’s so easy and promotes time together,” she added in the caption.
Advice for recreating popular 'hack'
Corinne tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she was inspired to make her own Christmas advent calendar because she wanted to “create something special for [her] kids that would help build excitement for the season”.
“The idea of a book advent calendar came to me because my daughter is a little bookworm and I wanted to focus on fostering that love for reading for both my kids while also making use of our growing Christmas book collection,” she says. “It’s a way to share some quiet, cosy moments together as a family and build anticipation for Christmas in a meaningful way.
“The stories we unwrap each night give us something to look forward to that isn’t just a quick treat - it’s a chance to bond, share excitement, and create new Christmas traditions. Plus, it’s a great way to introduce kids to different books and themes, sparking their imagination and helping them wind down before bed.”
She adds that her biggest piece of advice for others hoping to recreate her ‘hack’ is to start by selecting a variety of books, including classics, new ones, and even non-Christmas-themed books to build your collection.
"We use the same each year, maybe swapping out one or two,” she details. “Wrap each book individually and number them to match the days of advent. It’s also fun to build the collection over time, maybe adding a new book each year to grow your library.
“Another tip is to make it a family affair—let the kids help unwrap or even pick out some of their favourite books to include! And finally, don’t worry about perfection. The key is to make it fun and about the experience rather than stress over having the ‘perfect’ collection of books.”
Fans praise 'incredible' idea
Corinne’s video has since racked up over 225,000 views and plenty of comments from fans praising the “incredible” idea.
“I love this, I totally want to do this for my boys this year,” one person wrote, while another added, “Oh I love this! I was looking for a non-choc advent calendar”.
“All week was thinking what advent to do this year and this is it!” a third remarked, followed by someone else who said, “I definitely need to do this! My toddler loves books”.
“Omg we do this too and have been doing it for over 10 years now,” a different user remarked.
Tips to make the advent calendar on a budget
While some people argued that the advent calendar would be an expensive gift if you were to purchase 24 brand new books, Corinne pointed out that you could borrow from the library, wrap what’s already on your bookshelf, or buy books on sale.
“One year I couldn’t afford any new books so I just wrapped the books we had. My son still enjoyed it,” another fan shared, with someone else writing, “I reckon to cut down costs you could buy batches of books second hand”.
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“If you like this idea but cannot afford that many books you can buy an advent calendar with mini books for about $20,” a different user responded, referring to Kmart’s wide range of book advent calendars.
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