When my daughter was younger, for several years I did a book advent calendar for her. Some of the books would repeat every year, while others were new. It was a lot of fun but as she got into chapter books and graphic novels it got harder (and a lot more expensive!) to pick 24 books, so I stopped doing it a few years ago.
I think advent calendars that include activities and challenges are a lot of fun and give you something interesting to do on those days waiting for the holiday to actually get here. Here are some fun advent calendar ideas for kids to bring some fun to the season.
Mimosas & Motherhood has a list of 50 activity ideas you can add to your advent calendar aimed at being doable with toddlers, but a lot of them work with older kids, too. Here you’ll find ideas like doing a hot chocolate bar, making a gingerbread house, or doing a random act of kindness, to name just a few.
This Worthey Life has a printable bucket list style advent calendar that includes activities like visiting Santa, having a Christmas song dance party and doing a family photo in holiday sweaters.
Get 110 ideas to add to your list (collected a free printable) from Simplify Create Inspire. Some fun ones here: walk (or drive) around the neighborhood to look at lights, make sugar cookies, do a puzzle together.
KC Edventures has a list of 100 advent calendar ideas for kids that are arranged on a printable so you can make them little slips to slide into your advent calendar each day. This one includes ideas like read a new holiday book, make a bird feeder and go ice skating or sledding.
There’s 128 ideas for advent season fun at Add a Little Adventure. I kind of like the idea of printing all of them and letting kids pick (at random or not) which activities they’d like to do. Here you’ll find some more creative prompts like knitting a hat, playing a Christmas song on an instrument and making a Christmas cake.
Speaking of different ways to present advent calendar activity ideas, Mama Papa Bubba has a cute collection of activity cards presented in a Mason jar so you can grab one a day and do that activity. How about watching The Polar Express, making apple cider or making craft stick snowflakes?
Or why not make your advent calendar into a Lego advent calendar? Of course you can buy Lego advent calendars of all sorts, if you already have a bunch of Legos you can print out the Lego challenge advent calendar cards from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls. These cards challenge kids to use what they have to build holiday items like a reindeer, snowman and elf.
You can also buy kids a new Lego set and divide it up so they build a little bit each day on the way to Christmas. Check out the post at Savor the Days for more on this idea.
That’s nearly 24 ideas right there!
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