Advent Calendar

All of the excitement of Christmas is nearly upon us, and the anticipation of Christmas day always brings me so much joy as I watch our daughters enjoy all that the season offers. Tradition and advent, as a daily celebration and preparation of our hearts leading up to Christmas Day, plays such a large part of Christmas in our home. I love that when asked about past Christmases, the majority of their memories are not about receiving but instead about giving and the family time and memories made together through adent. I’m excited to share some of our family’s traditions!

Advent Calendar Activities

As I begin my holiday preparation for December, I print out a blank calendar for the month and mark down all pre-planned occasions. These are typically events that I have pre-purchased tickets for or that already have a scheduled date and time, and they become the advent activities for those days. From there, I sprinkle in other smaller activities or gifts that I know our daughters will love leading up to Christmas day! Some of our favorite advent activities include:

• Make cinnamon ornaments
• Candy cane hunt (hide candy canes throughout the house and see who can find the most….this is absolutely one of our girls favorite activities!)
• Decorate gingerbread houses (I’m strongly considering this reusable gingerbread house this year. While it won’t have the amazing smell of homemade, I always have to consider some convenience when planning.)
• Christmas donuts while making a Christmas wish list
• Go ice skating
• Campout by the Christmas tree
• String popcorn
• Start a new Christmas puzzle (we love Kinkade Christmas puzzles like this one…they are so beautiful when finished!….and the movie ‘Christmas Vacation’ is a family tradition, so this was a favorite find a couple of years ago! It’s so nice to then have an activity for days home from school due to snow days.)
• Write a letter to santa
• Caroling at a local nursing home
• Deliver treats to a neighbor
• Christmas movie with themed cookies or food
• Family Christmas charades night (create your own or search for free Christmas charade printables online)
• Christmas music dance party
• Take a drive to enjoy Christmas lights (our tradition has been to get Starbucks and take along Christmas puppy chow)
• Attend the Nutcracker Ballet
• Make a Christmas card for a soldier or teacher
• Christmas themed breakfast (ours using entails haivng the cutest santa pancakes)
• Attend ‘A Christmas Carol’
• Host a cookie exchange
• Make Christmas cookies (one year we gifted each of our girls an apron for this activity, but small cookie cutters might be a fun idea for this day too!)
• Receive Christmas socks
• Go to a living nativity
• Make treats for a family pet (we even use a bone shaped cookie cutter for our sweet pup Chloe)
• Gather a basket of old toys to donate
• Pick out a new ornament and have an ornament exchange (my husband and I have actually exchanged ornaments since the year we were engaged….he knows my love of vintage inspired glass ornaments and I find ornaments for his favorite sports teams that go on a ‘sports themed’ tree in his home office.)
• Make hot chocolate or hot cocoa bombs
• Christmas scavenger hunt (you can find free printables online for this activity)
• Make a homemade gift for siblings
• Give back to others (we decide as a family that day what charity we want to give to)
• Make birdseed ornaments and hang them outside
• Read a Christmas book together
• Write Christmas wishes to hang on the tree
• Local events (for us that includes a magic Christmas tree festival, grinch photo night, the candy cane crib light display, warm springs ranch, a living windows festival, grant’s farm light display, symphony of toys, & a winter wonderland light display)

I write out each activity on a gift tag and add them to the advent calendar, easily able to move and adjust the activities as our schedule allows or changes. While we always add in a few bigger events that I will cherish memories of, our daughters truly love, remember, and request the smaller activities yearly! I know that in years to come they will always reminisce about the fun that we had in counting down to Christmas day!

Other Advent Calendar Ideas

There are other thoughtful ideas that we have tried and some that we still partially incorporate into our advent tradition. I love the idea of random acts of kidness for each day of the month, but ultimately this is something we try to instill in our daughters every single day of the year (being kind and doing kind things for others year round). It would be a lovely way to welcome in the holidays, as it is of course the season of giving!

When our daughters were younger, I found a fantastic printable that told the story of the birth of Christ. Each day they pulled out a piece of paper from the advent calendar that told a small part of the story and included a Bible verse. It was a great way to introduce and tell the story of Christmas to young children.

Children (and let’s by honest, adults too) love counting down with chocolate, so I do sprinkle in Hershey Kisses throughout the month! It’s a fun little treat without buying the more expensive chocolate advent calendars.

Books Books are a great option too. This is not one we have personally participated in, but I think it is a wonderful idea when building a child’s library. Wrap a book for each day and let them pull from the stack and read it together!

However you may choose to prepare for Christmas through advent, I hope you enjoy and make wonderful memories! I love this tradition and the memories that my family is making each and every year.

Link for our advent calendar

Other similar calendars include this wooden Christmas advent calendar book or this fold out advent calendar

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