A reusable advent calendar is a great weekend print: 24 small boxes, one lid file, and a few spools of filament. Here is how to make one that actually survives December.
What to print
- 24 boxes, 46 x 46 x 38 mm each, 1.6 mm walls. Big enough for a chocolate bar piece, a small toy or a rolled-up note.
- 24 lids from a single file. The lid prints plate-down with the lip pointing up, then you flip it over. No supports.
- Raised numbers 1 to 24 on the front of each box so you can find day 17 at a glance.
Settings that work
- PLA or PETG, 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm layers, 3 perimeters, 10 percent infill
- Lid fit: 0.35 mm gap per side. It is snug without needing glue. If your printer runs tight, scale lids 101 percent.
- Red and green filament, then a gold paint pen on the numbers. It takes a few minutes per box.
Time and filament
Each box is about 14 g and prints in around 1 hour 45 minutes, so budget roughly 40 hours and 400 g total. Start early in November, and run one batch per night.
Ways to display it
- Stack the boxes in a triangle for a tree (6 rows: 1 to 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 wide)
- Line them on a shelf in 4 rows of 6
- Hang a plywood board with 24 pegs
Skip the modelling
I put the whole kit on Cults3D: Advent Calendar, 24 numbered boxes with lids ($4.49, 25 STL files).
I also made a set of 36 letter and number ornament tags to label the gifts, and Christmas cookie cutters for the baking side of the holiday.
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