24 Advent Calendar Activities for Kids, and How to Fill Your Calendar

Advent calendar activities replace the chocolate behind each door with something the family does that day: bake cookies, walk to see the lights, make a card for a neighbor. Pick 24 of them, write each on a card, and open one every morning from December 1 to 24. Most take under an hour and cost little or nothing.

The 24 ideas below fall into four groups: at home, outside, giving, and cozy nights. After the list come tips on filling the calendar, versions for toddlers and teens, and a faith-based option.

Advent activities at home

Home activities are the backbone of the calendar, because they work on any day and in any weather. Keep the messier ones for weekends.

1. Bake Christmas cookies. Roll, cut and decorate one batch together. Freeze half for day 23, when nobody wants to bake.
2. Decorate a gingerbread house. A kit is easiest. With a younger child, glue the walls with thick icing the night before so they have set by morning.
3. Cut paper snowflakes. Fold printer paper into a triangle, snip the edges and tape the results to the windows. Kids from about 4 can do it with safety scissors.
4. Make a handprint ornament. Salt dough (flour, salt, water) or a paper cutout with the child's name and the year on the back. It becomes the one you hang every December after.
5. Put on a family Christmas show. Give everyone a day to prepare a song, a joke or a magic trick, then perform after dinner.
6. Make snowman pancakes. Three pancakes in a row, chocolate chips for eyes and buttons. Save it for a weekend morning.

Outdoor advent calendar activities

Outdoor days get kids moving in a month that tends to happen on the sofa. Have an indoor backup for each, since December weather doesn't care about your calendar.

7. Walk or drive to see the Christmas lights. Bring popcorn for the car, or a flask of cocoa if you walk. It works after dark on a school night.
8. Build a snowman. No snow? Draw one on the driveway in chalk, or build one from white socks indoors.
9. Make a pine cone bird feeder. Spread peanut butter or lard on a pine cone, roll it in birdseed and hang it from a branch. Check who comes to it over the next week.
10. Go on a winter nature hunt. Write a list before you leave: a red berry, a feather, a round stone, something green, a pine cone. First to find everything picks dinner.
11. Go ice skating or sledding. If there's no rink or hill nearby, sock-skate on the kitchen floor.
12. Count the Christmas trees. On any car ride, everyone counts the trees they see in windows. Whoever has the highest number at the end chooses the music.

Giving and kindness activities

Kindness days give December a bit of balance next to all the presents. Space them out, about one a week, so they don't feel like chores.

13. Pick a toy to give away. Each child chooses one toy they've outgrown for a donation box. Take it to the drop-off together.
14. Write a note for the mail carrier. Tape it to the mailbox with a candy cane.
15. Make a card for a neighbor. Older neighbors who live alone are a good choice. Kids can deliver it themselves.
16. Call or video chat with a grandparent. Have the kids prepare three questions first, such as "What was Christmas like when you were little?"
17. Do a secret good deed. Make a sibling's bed, set the table without being asked, or leave a note in a parent's coat pocket. Nobody tells until bedtime.
18. Bake for someone who helps you. The teacher, the bus driver, the crossing guard. Wrap the cookies and add a card the kids made.

Cozy advent activities for busy nights

Cozy activities fill the school nights when you have 20 minutes and no energy. Put them on the days with sports practice, late shifts or early bedtimes.

19. Hot cocoa with extra marshmallows. Stir it with a candy cane for a mint version.
20. Build a blanket fort and read Christmas stories in it. Leave it up until the weekend if the living room allows.
21. Have a pajama picnic under the tree. Sandwiches, fruit and a blanket on the floor, with the room lit only by the tree lights.
22. Watch a Christmas movie in pajamas. Pick the film at breakfast so there's something to look forward to all day.
23. Family game night. Any board game, plus a bowl of snacks. Let the youngest pick the game.
24. Leave milk and cookies out for Santa. This one belongs on December 24. Add a carrot for the reindeer.

How to fill an activity advent calendar

An activity calendar holds a card or a slip of paper for each day, in an envelope, a small bag, a box or a jar. The planning takes one evening in late November. Here is the order that works:

1. Get out your December calendar first. Mark the busy days, the weekends and anything already booked: school concerts, a party, a trip.
2. Match activities to days. Quick ones (cocoa, carols, a poem at bedtime) go on the busy days. Baking, crafts and outings go on weekends.
3. Make one list of supplies. Pine cones, birdseed, a gingerbread kit, card stock. Buy everything in one trip.
4. Write the day number on each card and put it in its envelope or bag. Keep a list for yourself so you can swap two days if the weather turns.
5. Leave a few gaps. Two or three blank cards let you add an invitation that comes up, or repeat a favorite.

Our advent activity calendar is built for this. It has 48 activity cards in six color-coded groups (Cozy, Crafty, Yummy, Kindness, Outdoors and Playful), so you choose the 24 that fit your month, plus 8 blank cards for your own traditions. The checklist marks the quick ones for school nights, and a 24-day planner has columns for the weekday, the activity and a done box. Number tags from 1 to 24 go on envelopes, bags or boxes, and kids color one present a day on the countdown tree.

Advent calendar activities for toddlers

Toddlers need activities that take 10 to 15 minutes and happen at home. Good picks for ages 2 to 4:

• Stick stickers on a paper stocking with their name on it.
• Make a paper chain and count the links.
• Wear a Christmas sweater all day.
• Hide a toy reindeer and take turns finding it.
• Dance to Christmas songs in the kitchen.
• Read one Christmas picture book before bed.

Open the day's card at breakfast and do the activity soon after. By evening a toddler has forgotten there was a card.

Advent calendar activities for teens

Teens join in when the activity gives them some control or some independence. Try:

• A cooking challenge: they plan and cook dinner for the family one night.
• A playlist night, where each person adds five Christmas songs and everyone guesses who picked what.
• A photo walk to shoot the best lights in the neighborhood.
• A charity shift, such as helping at a food bank or a toy drive.
• A treat from another country, which they research and make.

Let a teen write four or five of the cards themselves. They're more likely to show up for days they chose.

A faith-based advent

A Christian family can pair the activities with a short Bible reading each day. Read at breakfast or dinner, then do the activity. Our Advent Bible reading plan has 25 daily pages from December 1 to Christmas Day in the King James Version, each with a question for little ones and a harder one for older kids. The five weeks follow the Advent wreath candles: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Christ.

More December ideas

If 24 isn't enough, the free Christmas bucket list printable has more things to do together, and the full Christmas bucket list set has 84 ideas plus wish lists for four age groups. Families with a Christmas elf can have it deliver the calendar on December 1; see our elf arrival ideas.