Karen Foster 3D Countdown Calendar, 25 Drawers

We use these every year for Advent. They're small - each box is only 1.5"x1.5" - but that's a great size for a little prize or a piece of chocolate. I use temporary tape to attach numbers to the front of each, and cut apart pictures to attach to the back of each box. Then it becomes a puzzle so they can figure out this year's theme. Pretty sturdy, but it is only white cardboard. Looks good. Have used them twice now for my kids (they're teenagers), and I'm sure they'll be fine for several years to come.

I really liked the idea of using drawers to make the Advent calendar, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money, plus, I wanted to be able to personalize them to fit our style. I found this set of drawers on Amazon for a little over $15. They're nice, sturdy, and they fit the bill, even though they are really small. The whole set is 8″x8″, so even though he's made of Shrinky Dink, I couldn't fit Santa in there. But everything else fits, so I went with it.See the finished product on my blog, Practice What You Pinterest. [...]

Price was right, but it's very cheap, badly designed. The drawers are very tight in the slots and thus very difficult to open. I could see elderly people or children having a hard time. Beware the glossy cardboard - regular elmers glue or craft glue doesn't work with paper or foil, the glue dries then the paper just peels right off. Ended up having to use tape which made the drawers even harder to pull out. A couple of design tweaks and this would be a great product. Otherwise, it's just kind of a pain and cheap.

My kids are really enjoying their new advent calendars. We are hoping to use them for years to come. I had fun decorating them, too. I bought a pack of Christmas themed scrapbook paper here on Amazon (http://amzn.to/1T5PyRB) and used papers with a small repeat. The calendar comes with a little template you can cut out to use to trace around for the drawer fronts. I used Mod Podge to attach the papers, and I put another coat of Mod Podge over the top of all the paper to seal it. If I notice any wear patterns in future, I will brush on another coat of Mod Podge.Some drawers are pretty tight, but the kids have already worked out how to stick a butter knife to wedge it out, and I have a feeling the drawers will loosen up over time. The drawers are quite small as others have mentioned, but I was able to fit quite a variety of small items. I was able to fit two Hershey Kisses and one small Reese's cup all in one drawer. The other drawers have a mix of various little toys/items. If you want some ideas, here is what I put in them: Shopkins, Lego and Lego-compatible minifigures, Dippin' Dots lip balm, rings/jewelry, Hot Wheels Star Wars minifigures. You could also create little coupons for special treats/privileges. I might do that next year.As long as the kiddos are careful w/ them and they are stored carefully, I see no reason they won't last for many years. I'm very pleased with this purchase and how their calendars turned out.

I had originally bought these to make countdown calendars for my daughters-in-law. The pattern they give you is too small for one thing. Since I'd bought so many of these (from different places) I cut out almost 100 before I realized they wouldn't fit. Then I used a Silhouette cutter to redo them. When I tried to decorate: Tacky Glue - NOPE! Super Glue -NOPE! Spray adhesive - NOPE! I had to litterally SAND down the drawers & then use the sprat adhesive and that still wasn't 100%. I finally bought wooden trees with drawers from AC Moore, instead. I HAD to have something to hold all the clay handmade ornaments that I'd already made.

Smaller then I thought it would be overall. Hard to fit anything more than candy such as a Hershey's kiss or Tootsie roll in the drawers. I was disappointed however, I should have paid better attention to the size. Construction is not terrible, bit not as sturdy as it should be.

For the price it's actually not bad considering what else you see on the internet/stores. For some reason, it's ridiculously difficult to find a decent looking advent calendar for kids at a reasonable price. I have a pricey one for my kids that is wooden with much bigger drawers, but it cost a pretty penny and pretty large. I wanted to put some together for my friends' kids, but just buying the advent itself for multiple kids would break the bank before buying prizes to go inside! At $15/ea, they're pretty reasonably priced, even though you're only getting one made out of cardboard. The material reminds me of a cardboard jewelry box like the kind you get at department stores - brown on the inside, but a shiny white paper on the outside. Quite possible I'm paying a tad more than if I found this kit at a local big box craft store, but they're about impossible to find. It's not even 2 weeks into November and Hobby Lobby tells me they're sold out.Each of the drawer measures 1 1/2" around, but the space inside is about 1 3/8". IMHO, in comparison to the wooden ones I've seen in the stores (already painted), these drawers are pretty spacious. I like to fill my kids' calendars with small little trinkets/toys and I can actually squeeze in a mini stamp & mini stamp pad in this one - other advent houses/calendars, I can maybe get a Hershey's kiss to fit in a drawer.I painted the outside of the frame and the outside of each drawer with acrylic paint. 2 coats did a decent job and it comes with number stickers to put on the outside. There's a template you can cut out that comes with the kit if you wanted to glue paper on the outside (I'm just too lazy for that!). Other reviewers have mentioned that the drawers don't slide in and out that easy - there were some drawers that were a little stuck, so I took them all out and stuck them all back in a different order. They still don't slide in and out that easily, but on the bright side, I know that if this thing were to tip over, all the drawers and contents won't fall out. For little fingers, perhaps it might be easier to get your finger in the space to pull open the drawer. Probably really difficult with an adult with large fingers (I fit small size gloves and my pointer finger is a little snug in the drawer hole).I've already started on one and plan to get 3 more. Even though I'm no Martha Stewart - and the boxes will come out imperfect, I plan on buying 3 more since after searching for some time for advent calendars under $20 with decent sized drawers are near impossible to find. I'm sure the 5 - 8 year olds won't mind and it will be much easier to hit up the party store for little trinkets that will fit, rather than filling wooden boxes with just tiny pieces of candy and loose change.Overall, I say it's a pretty good deal for what you get. If you're wanting something more sturdy and higher quality, then go ahead and pay twice as much for a wooden one. If you find a nice wooden one for under $30, let me know! :0)

Excelente opción para niños para anticipar la Navidad.

I used this to make an advent calendar and it worked perfectly for what I wanted. The drawers are small, but I was still able to fit treats in it.

No le doy más estrellas porque los cajones son algo irregulares (el tirador está más o menos centrado, tiene variaciones de tamaño...). En el paquete se incluye una plantilla para recortar los papeles con los que quieras decorar el calendario. Sin embargo las irregularidades de los cajones hacen que no sea útil en absoluto. Hay que coger cada uno de los cajones y hacer el molde con ellos.El mueble está bien de tamaño para lo que yo buscaba (meter caramelos o bombones dentro de los cajones).

Love this calendar. Had bought one several years ago for my eldest granddaughter and wanted one for the youngest one now. Great fun covering the front of the boxes with Christmas themes but of course Easter and Hallow'een particularly would look good too. I got the first one from a Craft shop who no longer stocks them so was extremely pleased to find them on Amazon and will certainly think about buying two more.

Preciosa, permite decorarla al gusto de cada uno.