How to create an activity advent calendar [with download]

Christmas season can be busy and stressful, but it can also be a time for making extra family memories. Focusing on family time together, using an activity advent creates a lifetime of treasured moments with those you love the most.

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What is an activity advent?

Each day, starting December 1st thru December 24th, your family will do daily activities together, for a total of 24 family activities leading up the Christmas Day, serving as a countdown calendar and building anticipation. That’s 24 memories of fun together as a family. My kids still talk about some of the advent activities we did when they were small. Your favorite activities can be repeated every year, and become your own new family traditions.

Then, each day, complete the activity that is planned for that day. But be flexible and ready to swap activities when life happens – don’t insist on going ice skating in the rain or watching a long Christmas movie when you don’t get home until 9pm just because it was on the original plan in that order. Have a few backup ideas and reorder activities as needed throughout the month.

If your children are old enough to read, let them get involved in announcing the day’s activity. My sons took turns opening the little tab in the activity calendar we had when they were younger – and were EXTRA excited for the activity when it was their turn.

Couples and Individuals – this is for you too!

Activity advents aren’t just for young children or even just for families with kids. Couples, families with older children and individuals can also make the holiday season more memorable and meaningful with an activity advent. Christmas can be hard when you’ve lost a loved one or are going through other difficult times. Or even just when life is changing, like that first December with an empty nest. You may also find not everyone in your family willingly participates. That’s okay, just include those who are willing (even if it is only you), and you may find others become more willing over time. Enjoying some special Christmas traditions is beneficial for all of us.

Why choose an activity advent over other advents?

There are many options for advent calendars these days. Most involve receiving small gifts each day, such as the popular Lego Advent calendar. I’ve seen sock advent calendars, cheese advent calendars, and chocolate advent calendars.

With an activity advent, the focus is on making memories and treasuring time with loved ones rather than on the accumulation of more stuff. I enjoy (and have used) the advent calendars involving a small toy or other small gift, but looking back as my kids are older, I truly believe the activity advent was the most meaningful and memorable. The chocolate has been eaten (and we had plenty of sweets around during the holidays already anyway), and the toys have been packed away, given away or thrown away. But we’ll never forget the time we spent as a family decorating the Christmas tree, drinking hot chocolate, building a gingerbread house, looking at Christmas lights, and making cookies.

How to create the activity advent calendar?

Step 1 – Select 24 activities (plus a couple back-ups)

Make a list of activities that appeal to you and are age-appropriate for your family. I have a free printable with a list of 50 ideas for activities in a “gift tag” shape you can use. I also included a sheet of blank tags you can use for your own unique ideas. Fill out 24 activity tags with your selected activities (plus a couple backups).

A few of our favorite activities are below – but you can see all 50 ideas in the free printable.

• Make Christmas cookies
• Drive through a Christmas light display
• Decorate gingerbread houses
• Movie night watching “It’s a Wonderful Life”
• Have a “snowball” fight inside using rolled-up socks
• Sing or listen to Christmas carols
• Read the Christmas story in the Bible

When selecting your activities, also look at community events. What types of activities are organized in your area? Is there a “Breakfast with Santa” you could attend? These often include crafts, snacks and a photo with Santa. Is there an old movie theater that plays classic Christmas movies? We have a local symphony that puts on a Christmas special each December.

What types of activities does your family especially enjoy? Does your weather usually allow you to be outdoors? Maybe there are some local hikes that are especially pretty in December. Are there activities that would be fun to do with friends, such as a little girls Christmas tea party or a trip to the children’s museum? Do you have a downtown area that might have store windows decorated? Many local venues have beautiful holiday decorations that are enthralling to see.

Tips to Select activities for your advent

• Check your calendar as you plan the activities and align the longer activities to days that aren’t busy. For example, baking cookies will take several hours. How many days do you have for longer activities? Don’t select 15 long activities, if you only have 3 totally open days on the calendar.
• Consider input from those who will be participating – what great ideas do they have for activities?
• Account for dependent activities. If you want to deliver homemade treat boxes to your neighbors, plan that activity AFTER the cookie-baking activity.
• Note any activities that require some advance preparation (such purchasing candy canes or calling ahead to the food bank) and make reminders for yourself to complete those tasks.

Step 2 – Align your selected activities to the dates from December 1 to December 24

You’ve already considered what you have scheduled for December in selecting activities, but now is the time to lay out the best advance plan for the date for each activity. Sort the activity tags from 1 to 24, and set a couple of backups aside to pull from if needed.

• Choose a few simple activities for the first day or two – build some momentum with activities that are easy and that you know everyone will love.
• Place the most time-consuming activities on dates that are otherwise completely clear.
• For Christmas Eve, select an activity that is most likely to become a family tradition – something you will want to do every year.
• Schedule the activities that are most important to you early in the month. You can always move them later if necessary, but this will help ensure you don’t have to skip them altogether.
• If you have activities that involve others (friends, donations to shelters, etc.), account for their schedules as well.
• For activities requiring supplies, make sure you schedule them such that you have time to obtain those supplies (don’t make this stressful on yourself!).

Step 3 – Visually display the advent

Creating a visual display of the advent activities is beneficial for a number of reasons:

1. The visual display builds excitement for those participating.
2. By showing how far you’ve progressed through the advent, younger participates can better understand how many days until Christmas.
3. Let’s be honest – a visual display helps ensure that the activity tags aren’t misplaced. Your activity advent won’t be much fun if you can’t find the activity tags.
4. A visual display can also serve as a Christmas decoration.

So how should you visually display your advent? There are SO many options.

Options to display the advent activity tags:

• Make or buy a wall hanging to hold the tags. These two fit the printable tags:

• Use a pretty box, such as a wooden recipe card box, a tea bag box (fill extra slots with Christmas decorations or ornaments) or small gift box. You can decorate these with a Christmas ribbon or bow. Place the sorted tags in the box and each day pull out the front tag.

• Using two envelopes, place the ordered activity tags in one envelope, and as they are used, place them in the other envelope. The envelopes can go on the refrigerator or a bulletin board. Use brightly colored or decorated envelopes for more fun. The envelopes can be used to store the activity advent tags from year to year as well. If you are buying envelopes for Christmas cards this year, just use two of those. I love this design:

• Clip them to a piece of twine with clothespins and hang the twine in a doorway or on the wall. Decorating the clothespins could be one of the activities too!

Other display options:

No time for or interest in a do-it-yourself display? That’s okay because there are so many gorgeous advent calendars to choose from.

These two wooden boxes would be a simple way to have an attractive activity advent. Just place a piece of paper with the activity for the day inside each drawer.

Or this gold and white one – so elegant!

And if even these options are more than you want to do – printing the activities and sticking them on the refrigerator still works too.

Step 4 – Time to do the activities!

Have someone read the first activity to the family. Make this a big deal, build some suspense – and turn it into something everyone is looking forward to. Consider playing Christmas music during the activity announcement, or having the person reading the activity tag stand under a spotlight as if they were on stage. We have an accent light that shines on our fireplace, so we could turn off all the other lights and have someone stand on the hearth.

If the activity is one that requires supplies, have those discretely gathered in advance so that the activity can start right away.

If you cannot complete the selected activity on the planned day, choose another activity before it is announced – either swapping for an activity later in the month, or pulling from the backup activities.

Keep track of which activities your family most enjoyed. Track that on the back of the activity tags It will help you remember for next year and also become family memorabilia as time goes by. Your kids may want to have these tags for their own families someday, so they are worth spending some time on making them pretty and durable. On Christmas Eve, ask each family member which activity was their favorite and why. Reminisce on the memories you’ve made together all month as you look forward to the celebration of Christmas.

Take lots of pictures! They will be fun to look back on year after year.

Tips for durability of the activity advent tags:

1. Use heavy cardstock or poster board to make the tags.
2. I’ve included an option to create 2-layers tags, for both a pretty look and to make them sturdier.
3. Consider laminating the tags. You can find laminating services at office supply stores (Staples, Office Depot) or shipping stores (FedEx, UPS Store). Or you can buy laminating sheets like these or a laminator machine.

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