It’s almost advent calendar time! I own an adorable felt calendar that I found in the Target Dollar Section a few years ago. In December, each day holds a note listing something to do leading up to Christmas. This year’s list of advent calendar activities looks slightly different, but the kids will love it anyway.
The activities are a mix of physical objects, experiences and acts of service for others. Here’s our list of ideas we have to choose from this year.
Christmas Pajamas
The kids will each receive a new pair of matching christmas pajamas. I’ll be honest, they love this, but this is just as much for me as it is for them. I love the way my children look in matching pajamas and when they have santa on them it’s even better.
Holiday Book
We read a lot in our home. A LOT. But I don’t buy a ton of books. Usually we utilize the library, borrow or get hand me down books from friends. At Christmas time though, I always buy the kids each a new Christmas book. I write the date inside the cover and then they are stored with our Christmas decorations. They only come out once a year….are read excessive amounts of times and tucked away with the rest of the stuff at the end of the season. Our holiday book collection has become so special and one of the kids favorite things to take out at Christmas time.
Holiday Craft
We will do a holiday craft. Something super simple.
Nature Walk
We will go on a walk and find things to make decorations for our house.
Buy someone coffee
We will go through the drive through and surprise someone with a random act of kindness by paying for their coffee. Believe it or not this has been one of the kids favorite activities. Last year Anika spent some time imagining what the person thought, how happy they were, what their face looked like. It was really sweet.
Christmas Scavenger Hunt
This is just a holiday themed scavenger hunt with clues they follow and at the end they find a box with a couple small holiday themed items. I’ll create my own or find one free to download from the internet.
Donate to an Animal Shelter
We will donate some dog food and old towels to the animal shelter. This year we will just drop it off in the front lobby and leave. In years past we’ve actually gone inside to see the animals that we are helping to take care of.
Sticker book
This is a new one I’m adding this year. The kids love Melissa and Doug sticker books and I found a holiday edition for them.
Puzzle
This is also a new one I added this year. We will all complete a holiday puzzle together. After we finished that we will complete another holiday puzzle, write a message on the back and mail that puzzle disassembled to their friends to surprise them with a puzzle to complete and a fun letter to read.
Frosty the Snowman
We will watch Frosty the Snowman.
Gingerbread house
We will make a gingerbread house together.
Christmas Cookies
We will bake and decorate holiday cookies. I love reading this book to the kids before we get started.
Reindeer Cam
I found this website called reindeercam.com, that looks so fun. It’s a webcam where you can watch Santa’s Reindeer. This is something new I’m trying with the kids this year.
Christmas Lights Bath
This idea came from busytoddler last year and it was a huge hit. I stick the kids in their bathing suits, fill up our giant bathtub and put some red and green glow sticks in it. I turn out the lights and they have a super cool “Christmas Lights Bath”.
Salt Dough Ornaments
The kids and I will make salt dough ornaments using this recipe.
Christmas Music Dance Party
We will turn down the lights, put some fun kids Holiday music and get dancing!
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
We will watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
Christmas Lights Drive
We will put the kids in their pajamas and then drive around looking at the Christmas lights in our neighborhood and town. Anika really enjoys driving at night for some reason, maybe it’s the novelty of it because it rarely happens, so this is always an extra special treat for her.
Christmas Donut
We will hit up the Dunkin Donuts drive through for one of their yummy holiday themed donuts.
Decorate Hot Chocoloate
I’ll make hot chocolate and then set out whip cream, sprinkles, and marshmallows for the kids to decorate it with.
Christmas Bingo
We will play a game of Christmas Bingo using holiday candies as the markers. At the end of the game the kids get to eat the candies.
FaceTime Jingle Bells
The kids will practice singing Jingle Bells and then they will FaceTime as many family members as they want to sing it to them.
Christmas Eve Breakfast
Christmas themed breakfast with super simple decorations (balloons and a tablecloth), and food in Christmas shapes and colors.
Gift for a Child in Need
Our local parent group always coordinates this. Usually the kids and I will go to a store and they will help pick out a gift. This year we will buy online and the kids can help pick it out.
Paper Snowflakes
Remember doing this as a kid? I’m teaching my kids the traditions of my good old days. When we had like two channels on the TV and I needed to figure out something to do to entertain myself during Christmas break. With paper and scissors readily available this was always a possible activity.
Charlie Brown Christmas
I love this movie so so much and I love watching it with my kids. I like to read the book with the kids first and then see how it compares.
Christmas Day!
Our advent calendar is such a fun family tradition for us. As I’m typing all this up I can see that some of these activities would make wonderful “experience gifts” for someone else. For example I could create a “Hot Chocolate Decorating Kit” complete with everything you’d need or a “Charlie Brown Christmas Viewing Kit”, complete with amazon giftcard to download the movie, popcorn, candy boxed theater style and a copy of the book. I’d love receiving either of these things. Experience gifts are the best gifts!
I’ve also made my first ever printable! It’s a fun little advent calendar that you can print out, or just use the ideas! I’ve seen printables on other sites as well, and I just love them. I hope this is useful for you!
After we finished the calendar, the kids and I decided to put together a fun gift box with materials to complete the ideas/activities in the advent calendar, and send them as gifts to friends.
Along the way, we got to thinking that maybe others would be interested in this sort of thing as well, so we’ve decided to make it available on Etsy! You can take a look at my (brand new) Etsy store here. This combines some of my kids favorite things…arts and crafts, receiving mail (addressed to them), and mystery boxes!
We did let the kids know if we sold any the proceeds would be put toward their higher education, but they’d have to work for it…so expect some fun decorations on the outside of the shipping box 😂
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