Make Your Own Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

Fancy Advent Calendars are all the rage these days. I’ve seen gin calendars, beer calendars, LEGO calendars and skincare calendars; but alas there are no Yorkshire Tea calendars. I have searched high and low for a Yorkshire Tea calendar (other tea brands are available) but ended up deciding to make my own.

Tea drinkers are usually fiercely loyal to their brand. My best friend loves tea, specifically Yorkshire Tea and with lockdown once more gripping the country, I felt it was time to make them a special Advent gift.

Make Your Own Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

The idea is a simple one. Find a new Yorkshire Tea tea towel and sew individually wrapped Yorkshire Tea teabags onto it. It’s not really much more complicated than that, but here’s how I did it.

How to make a Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

You will need:

A Yorkshire Tea tea towel, I bought mine from eBay
24 individually wrapped Yorkshire Tea teabags, I got mine from Amazon
A permanent marker
A needle and thread

Making your Advent Calendar

Lay your tea towel on a flat surface and decide how best to place your individually wrapped teabags. I took a photo so I could remember what worked best, because I can be a bit forgetful. You might want to iron your tea towel before you start, I didn’t because I’m quite lazy.

Using the marker pen, number each teabag. Feel free to write a joyful message on the back of some of the packets if you wish. Shuffle your teabags so they are now in a random order.

Make Your Own Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

Remembering the pattern of how you’re going to sew them onto the tea towel; take your needle and thread and stitch a couple of tacking stitches through the top sealed edge of the teabag. Sew each one onto your tea towel and continue until you’ve sewn them all on.

That’s it.

Should you be a bit worried that your sewing might not be up to much, you could get 24 safety pins and pin the teabags onto the tea towel instead. If you’ve gone for the sewing option; then I’d advise the recipient that a quick snip each day with some small scissors will release the bag from the tea towel and bring them some brewing up joy.

Make Your Own Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

If you’re looking for more Advent Calendar ideas, you can read about my Reverse Advent Calendar or find out about some interesting Advent Calendars you can buy.

Make Your Own Yorkshire Tea Advent Calendar

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

Christmas is the time for spreading a little bit of magic and cheer. What better way to do that than by doing something each day during Advent. In the olden days, when I was a little girl (in the 80’s), my advent calendar was a cards with windows which you’d open and there would be a picture behind it. It was all very lovely, but times have changed and kids and grown-ups expect more.

I’ve picked out five quite interesting advent calendar ideas for you, which if you’re quick, you can get cracking with before 1st December!

Traditional Chocolate Advent Calendar

There’s something simple and cheery about traditional chocolate advent calendars, they’re great for children and adults too. They come in a pretty huge range of different themes and characters; but this colourful Teletubbies Advent Calendar is a winner. Behind every window in this kids’ advent calendar there’s a delicious milk chocolate treat to help you count down the days until Christmas.

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

The Teletubbies Advent Calendar can be found in a wide range of retailers, but I’ve spotted it in B&M for just 89p – a bargain!

Elf & Seek Festive Countdown

Little Treats Bakery have recently launched a fun, festive countdown activity in the form of freshly baked festive treats. Known as Elf & Seek, you get a box of 24 individually wrapped and decorated gingerbread elves to hide around the house each day of December.

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

Elf & Seek is an interactive, exciting and tasty way to keep the magic of Christmas alive. Simply hide one of the little elves around your home each day of December and the kids have to hunt it down as they countdown to Christmas. It’s the perfect advent calendar if you’re a bit tired of the same old kind of calendars each year.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Take a selfie of your biscuit elf, uncovered from its hiding place; share it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ElfieSelfie – the winner will win an extra special, tasty treat; a hamper of biscuits tailored to a theme of their choice!

Elf & Seek Festive Countdown is available to order from Amazon for £10.

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

Playmobil 1.2.3 Advent Calendar

For little ones (18 months+) this Christmas they can enjoy an outdoor Christmas with Santa and his forest friends. The 1.2.3 Advent Calendar “Christmas in the Forest” contains twenty-four surprise items for each day of Advent. With a bright and colorful design and large, rounded pieces, this Playmobil 1.2.3 set is ideal for toddlers.

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

This adorable advent calendar includes Santa, elf, angel, reindeer, sleigh, gifts, dog, bunnies, fox, forest animals, and other accessories to help complete this woodland Christmas scene.

Costing just £21.99 the Playmobil 1.2.3 advent calendar is the perfect way for little ones to count down to Christmas!

LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar

Star Wars fans young and old will love this year’s LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar. Open a door of this advent calendar each day in the run up to Christmas to discover a LEGO Star Wars themed minifigure, starship, vehicle or other collectible. There’s even a foldout playmat featuring images from Jakku, Starkiller Base and deep space for epic Star Wars encounters.

Five Quite Interesting Advent Calendar Ideas

The LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar is recommended for ages 6 years+ and is brilliant (we had one last year)!

Reverse Advent

The old saying goes – it’s better to give than to receive. At Christmas I find this to be especially true. Last Christmas we put together a reverse advent calendar for our local foodbank. I would very much encourage you to think about doing the same.

No only did it make us feel warm and fuzzy; it fed a family or two for a few days. It also taught my son a few lessons about empathy, caring for others and made us all think a little less about what we wanted and more about what other people needed just to get by. Never bad things to be reminded of.

You can read my blog post about our reverse advent calendar and read about what you need to put one together too.

Giving back this Christmas - Our Reverse Advent Calendar

What kind of advent calendars will you be choosing this year?