Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar

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Celebrate Valentine’s Day with your significant other by creating a fun and festive Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar and lots of memories!

Check out the tutorial for this DIY Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar below, or PIN IT for later!

Happy Monday, friends! It is hard to believe that we are already well into 2019 and almost done with the month of January! In fact, the next holiday, Valentine’s Day, is right around the corner! I’ve busted out all my heart filled, pink and red décor and I am busy working on some fun Valentine’s Day ideas and goodies!

First up, this adorable (if I do say so myself!) DIY Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar!  For years I wanted to do an advent calendar to countdown the days in the month of December and thought this year would be the year. However, December snuck up on me and we were well into the month before I put another thought into it.

That’s when I had the idea to create a Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar. While the December holiday season is much more celebrated and full of tradition, I thought it would be fun to take the idea of a holiday advent calendar and use it for Valentine’s Day. To be honest, in all the years my husband and I have been together, we’ve never really made a big deal out of Valentine’s Day. We usually make a “nice” dinner at home together (usually steaks or pasta) and then I’ll try to gift him something cutesy, yet thoughtful (like a homemade card or doing a “heart attack” on his closet door).

That’s why I’m excited to “gift” him this Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar. Not only is this a thoughtful Valentine’s Day gift, I am gifting my husband experiences and my time, which I think is the best type of gift!

Now, I know what you are thinking, wait February 1^st is THIS Friday and there is no way I have time to make something like this. BUT!! Before you dismiss making your own Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar, let me tell you, this really didn’t take that long to make (just a couple of hours working on it while watching TV after the babe was in bed) AND yours doesn’t have to be as detailed as mine (I LOVE scrapbooking/card making, so this was super fun for me). Instead of making 14 different “cards” just use a heart stencil and cut out 14 heart shapes OR pick up a pack of Valentine’s Day cards from the store and write your “tasks” inside and string it up like garland on your mantel or just tape them to your wall with painter’s tape. Really, it IS the thought that counts so do what you have time to do and feel comfortable with making based on your skills and resources!

In addition to gifting my husband the advent calendar, I created a festive little Valentine’s gift basket filled with things to complete our advent calendar tasks. Things like a movie rental gift card, a gift card to our favorite local sandwich shop, and some DOVE® Chocolate Bars. We love chocolate and to me, chocolate and Valentine’s Day go together like peanut butter and jelly!

I was also excited to see when I was at Walmart getting the supplies for my Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar and gift basket, that they have three new bold flavors of DOVE® Chocolate Bars, DOVE® Bourbon Vanilla, DOVE® Salted Caramel Blonde and DOVE® Almond Brittle Chocolate Bars (in addition to the classic varieties like DOVE® Milk Chocolate, DOVE® Dark Chocolate and DOVE® Raspberry Rose). I picked up some of these to add to my gift basket because these chocolate bars are perfect for sharing with others and who doesn’t love trying a new “fancy,” yet affordable, chocolate with bold robust flavors and ingredients! I definitely do! 😊

Below you can find my full tutorial on how to make a Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar. I’ve also included a few advent calendar task ideas. I wanted to make sure and include fun things that my husband and I could do, like watch a rom com or play card games, and things that we could do together to “share the love” of the season with others, like volunteer, perform random acts of kindness and call loved ones who live far away.

Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions? If so, please share in the comments below! And if not, I hope you fill inspired to create your own advent calendar and make some new Valentine’s Day memories!

Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar Supplies:

• Large white foam board
• String or ribbon
• Tape
• Assorted paper (in red, pink and white colors)
• Alphabet stickers
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Paper trimmer
• Heart shaped stencil
• Pen or marker
• Mini clothes pins

How to Make a Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar:

1. Wrap the string or ribbon around the foam bard in three different sections; securing the ribbon to the back of the foam board with tape.
2. Using the craft paper, stickers, stencils, glue, etc. create 14 different decorated cards. I cut some paper to 4×6-inch size, 3×3-inch size and then used a large heart stencil to trace and cut out several individual hearts.
3. Use the alphabet stickers to create sayings and to number the cards (1-14), if desired. I chose to leave mine unnumbered (except for day 14), since I plan to use this year after year, and may need to rearrange the daily tasks based on our schedule for that year. Since we always spend Valentine’s Day night cooking dinner together at home, that will always be for day 14!
4. Write desired tasks on the back of each card.
5. Attach the cards, in desired order, to the ribbon on the foam board using the clothes pins.

Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar Task Ideas:

1. Decorate your home for Valentine’s Day
2. Watch a romantic comedy
3. Create homemade Valentine’s Day cards for each other
4. Share a DOVE® Chocolate Bar
5. Make a Valentine’s Day themed breakfast (ie: heart shaped pancakes or strawberry smoothie)
6. “Share the Love” and volunteer at the local food bank, animal shelter or nursing home
7. Preform a random act of kindness (like making a simple Valentine’s themed gift basket and leaving it anonymously on your neighbor’s porch)
8. Sip coffee and watch the sun rise
9. Meet up for lunch during the work day
10. Tell your significant other 14 reasons why you love them
11. Have an indoor picnic
12. Play cards or board games
13. Call or video chat with your loved ones that live far away
14. Make dinner together and eat it by candle light

The above ideas are perfect activities to do with your spouse/significant other. But you could also create a Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar and do things to show yourself some love and self care or to celebrate the holiday with your gal pals and countdown to Galentine’s Day!

A few self-care Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar Task Ideas (in addition to some of those above):

1. Treat yourself to a pedicure in a bright red or pink color
2. Read a good love story
3. Buy some fresh flowers
4. Take a bubble bath
5. Go out to dinner with friends

Stock up on all the supplies to make your own Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar and gift basket, including DOVE® Chocolate Bars (available on the candy aisle) at your local Walmart store! And for more fun ideas for bold people who love chocolate with bold flavors, click here!

DOVE® Chocolate Bars Nutritional Information:

DOVE® Salted Caramel Blonde:

Serving Size: 1/3 bar, Calories 170, Total Fat 10g, Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 5mg, Sodium 65mg, Total Carb. 18g, Dietary Fiber 0g, Total Sugars 18g, Incl. 15g Added Sugars, Protein 2g

DOVE® Almond Brittle:

Serving Size: 1/3 bar, Calories 170, Total Fat 11g, Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 10mg, Sodium 30mg, Total Carb. 17g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Total Sugars 16g, Incl. 14g Added Sugars, Protein 2g

DOVE® Milk Chocolate:

Serving Size: 1/3 bar, Calories 170, Total Fat 10g, Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 10mg, Sodium 25mg, Total Carb. 19g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Total Sugars 18g, Incl. 15g Added Sugars, Protein 2g