 <p>you should expose a DateTime dependency property on the control, done like so:</p> <pre><code> public DateTime Day { get { return (DateTime)GetValue(DayProperty); } set { SetValue(DayProperty, value); } } // Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for Day. This enables animation, styling, binding, etc... public static readonly DependencyProperty DayProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Day", typeof(DateTime), typeof(DayOfWeek), new UIPropertyMetadata(DateTime.MinValue)); </code></pre> <p>if you want this to be auto generated, what you should do is have an ItemsControl that contains this dayControl of yours, like so:</p> <pre><code> &lt;ItemsControl x:Name="DaysItemsControl"&gt; &lt;ItemsControl.ItemTemplate&gt; &lt;DataTemplate&gt; &lt;custom:DayDisplay Day="{Binding}"/&gt; &lt;/DataTemplate&gt; &lt;/ItemsControl.ItemTemplate&gt; &lt;/ItemsControl&gt; </code></pre> <p>and then DataBind it from code behind:</p> <pre><code> DateTime[] week = new DateTime[] { new DateTime(2000,1,1), new DateTime(200,1,2) }; DayItemsControl.ItemsSource = week; </code></pre>