Advent Activities for Kids

I love Advent. I love the practice of slowing down and counting down the days until something really special happens.

We believe in Jesus, so that special thing we wait for at Christmas time is Jesus’ birth. Since Wade’s been asking a lot about Jesus this year, we’ve decided to try out the Advent readings from the Jesus Storybook Bible. I found a download here referencing a story to read each day leading up to Christmas. Keeping my fingers crossed we stay on track! (I’ve already talked about how I like to get thing started, but I’m not that great at finishing…)

To have even more fun, we’ll be counting down the days until Christmas by doing a fun, usually simple Christmas activity each night.

Andria bought me the amazing Advent calendar in the picture above years ago, and I still love it. (I’ve found it online in a few places, but only in green. Still cute, though!) It’s perfect, slightly modern, simple, and goes with however I decide to decorate each year. I just write the day’s activity down on a scrap of paper and slip it into the drawers. I’m sure you’ve seen all kinds of Advent calendar ideas out there. If not, just search for Advent calendar on Pinterest and prepare to be overwhelmed…

I thought I’d share my list of activities in case you want to do something similar. Of course, I’m behind the ball, so we actually started on Dec. 3 – I’ve only listed 22 here. But I guess if you’re looking for ideas at this point, you’re even further behind than I am. 😉

1. Drink hot chocolate with peppermint sticks
2. Make a fire and make s’mores
3. Bake Christmas cookies
4. Eat a candy cane
5. Watch “Elf”!
6. Watch “White Christmas”!
7. Read Christmas books by the fire
8. FLY TO COLUMBUS!!! (Yes, we’ll be with Andria.)
9. Walk around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights
10. Go through clothes to donate
11. Bubble bath by candle light
12. Go to Willow Glen (a neighborhood close by that goes all out) to look at Christmas lights
13. Give Christmas cookies to the neighbors
14. Write letter to Santa
15. Make a Christmas card for someone you love
16. Paint a Christmas tree painting
17. Have snowman pancakes for dinner
18. Make Christmas cards for teachers
19. Eat cookies under the Campbell (that’s our town) Christmas Tree
20. Have a picnic dinner in front of the fire
21. Wrap Christmas presents
22. Decorate Christmas cookies

So far this year we’ve had hot chocolate and eaten a candy cane. It’s awesome because there’s really not too much planning that has to go into it – I just choose activities we would do anyway. Actually, I often just pick which activity I want to do that day and put in the box in the morning.

The boys love the countdown.

I ran across some kids’ Advent ideas over on Say Yes the other day I thought were really good, too. Head on over there to check them out if you’re interested.

Only XXXX more days until Christmas!