My F1 Advent Calendar Project – 2024
Alright, so I got this F1 bug bad, you know? And with the end of the year creeping up, I thought, why not make something fun? An Advent calendar, but make it F1. Seemed like a cool little project to keep me busy.
First thing, I needed a base. I looked around online, saw some fancy pre-made ones, but nah, too easy. I had this old wooden wine box thing collecting dust in the garage. Perfect. Bit rough, but solid. Gave it a good clean, sanded down the splinters. Decided to paint it, went for a classic racing green. Took a couple of coats, letting it dry properly in between. Patience isn’t my strong suit, but had to be done.
Next up, the compartments. 24 of them. This was tricky. I thought about cutting little wooden dividers, but that sounded like a lot of fiddly work and measuring. So, I cheated a bit. Found these little cardboard jewellery boxes online, cheap as chips. Bought a bunch. They fit pretty snugly inside the bigger wooden box after I arranged them. Had to glue some together to stop them sliding about.
Then the numbers. Gotta have numbers for the days. Found some simple sticker numbers, white ones, thought they’d stand out nicely against the green paint. Stuck ’em on each little box, 1 through 24. Tried to make them straight, mostly succeeded.
Gathering the F1 Goodies
This was the fun part, and also the slightly expensive part if I wasn’t careful. What do you put in an F1 Advent calendar? Needed small stuff.
Here’s what I hunted down:
- Keyrings – couple of team logos, an F1 logo one.
- Stickers – lots of these, drivers, tracks, team badges. Easy filler.
- A small pin badge.
- Couple of those little pull-back toy F1 cars. Found a pack of generic ones.
- Some wrapped chocolates – okay, not strictly F1, but it’s an advent calendar, right? Gotta have some chocolate.
- A tyre valve cap set with a chequered flag design. Found that randomly.
- Printed out some cool F1 photos from the season, laminated them quick and dirty to make mini prints.
- A slightly bigger item for Day 24 – managed to find a small die-cast model of a classic car, wasn’t too pricey.
Finding genuinely small, F1-themed things that weren’t super expensive took some digging. Spent a fair bit of time browsing online marketplaces and the odd hobby shop.
Putting It All Together
With the box painted and numbered, and my pile of little treasures ready, it was time to fill it up. I didn’t really plan it meticulously, just tried to mix it up. Didn’t want all the stickers bunched together. Put the slightly better bits towards the end, building up to the model car on the 24th. Popped each item into its numbered cardboard box, then slotted them all back into the main wooden box.
Stood back and had a look. You know what? It didn’t look half bad. A bit homemade, sure, but that was the point. The green box, the white numbers, the promise of tiny F1 things inside. Felt pretty satisfying, actually. A proper little project done.
Now it’s just sitting there, waiting for December 1st. Gonna be fun opening a little door each morning, much better than just grabbing a chocolate off a supermarket calendar. Yeah, pretty pleased with how my F1 Advent Calendar for 2024 turned out.
