Guide

Advent Calendar Ideas for Kids: 24 Activities to Count Down to Christmas

Published 5 November 2026.

Chocolate calendars are lovely, but plenty of families want something that lasts longer than the ten seconds it takes to eat a chocolate. An activity advent calendar swaps (or adds to) the treat with a small thing to do together each day. Done well, it gives December a gentle rhythm and a few memories that stick.

Here are 24 activity ideas, ways to make your own calendar, a few twists like kindness and reverse advent calendars, and some honest tips for keeping it manageable when you're already busy.

Before you start: keep it realistic

The biggest risk with an activity calendar is planning something ambitious for a Tuesday night when everyone's tired. A few rules that help:

• Write the activities on cards, not in stone. If Thursday's "bake gingerbread" won't happen, swap it with Saturday's.
• Mix big and tiny. Most days should take five or ten minutes. Save bigger outings for weekends.
• Check the calendar first. School plays, parties and late shifts all go on the plan before the fun stuff does.
• Let some days be "rest days". "Watch a Christmas film in pyjamas" counts as an activity.

24 advent activity ideas

Most of these cost little or nothing.

Cosy days at home

1. Put on Christmas music and have a kitchen disco.
2. Write a letter to Santa (see our letter to Santa guide).
3. Make paper snowflakes and stick them on the windows.
4. Read a new Christmas story at bedtime.
5. Have hot chocolate with marshmallows after school.
6. Watch a Christmas film with a homemade "cinema ticket".
7. Build a blanket den and read by torchlight.
8. Make a paper chain, adding one link for each day left until Christmas.

Crafty and creative

9. Decorate biscuits or make a gingerbread house.
10. Make a bird feeder from a pine cone, lard and seed.
11. Draw and send a Christmas card to a grandparent.
12. Make a salt dough ornament with a handprint.
13. Make wildlife-safe reindeer food for Christmas Eve (here's our reindeer food recipe).
14. Design wrapping paper with potato stamps on brown paper.

Out and about

15. Go for a walk to look at Christmas lights after dark.
16. Visit the library and pick a Christmas book.
17. Take a flask on a frosty morning walk and look for robins.
18. Go to a carol service, a nativity or a local Christmas fair.

Kind and thoughtful

19. Pick a toy or tin to donate.
20. Make a "thank you" card for a teacher, a nursery worker or the postie.
21. Do a secret kind thing for someone in the family.
22. Phone or video-call a relative who lives far away.

The final countdown

23. Wrap a present for someone else (as neatly as they can).
24. Christmas Eve: sprinkle reindeer food, leave out a mince pie and carrot, and follow Santa's sleigh on a Santa tracker before bed.

How to make your own activity advent calendar

You don't need to buy anything special. Some simple versions:

• Envelopes on a string. Number 24 envelopes, slip an activity card inside each, and peg them along a piece of twine.
• Matchboxes or small boxes, numbered and stacked into a pyramid or glued to a board.
• A jar of folded notes. Pull one out each morning. Number them if you want to control the order.
• Paper bags clipped to a coat hanger or a branch.
• Socks or mittens, washed and pegged up, with a note and a small treat inside.
• Toilet roll tubes, painted and closed at each end with tissue paper for little ones to poke through.

Tip: Write the activity on a card and put a tiny treat in with it: a sticker, a chocolate coin or a satsuma. Children still get the pleasure of opening something.

Other kinds of advent calendar

Kindness advent calendar

Each day has one small act of kindness instead of a treat or activity. Examples: hold the door for someone, draw a picture for a neighbour, help tidy up without being asked, tell someone what you like about them. It suits children from about four, and it's a nice counterweight to the "what am I getting?" side of December.

Reverse advent calendar

Instead of taking something out each day, you put something in. Use a large box and add one item a day, such as tins, pasta, toiletries or a warm hat, then drop it off at a local food bank or collection point before Christmas. Check your local food bank's list first so you give what they actually need.

Book advent calendar

Wrap books and open one a night. You can rewrap books you already own or borrow from the library. Our guide to Christmas stories for kids has suggestions by age.

Joke or riddle calendar

Write a joke on a slip of paper for each day. Great for children who are just learning to read, because they'll want to read it out to everyone at breakfast.

A digital calendar for busy mornings

If the idea of 24 envelopes is one job too many this year, a digital calendar can do the daily surprise for you. The Magical Christmas Calendar on Santa Playtime is a snowy village with 24 doors. Behind them are jokes, puzzles, illusions and notes, with a finale on Christmas Eve. One door opens at midnight UK time on each date from 1 December, and your progress is saved on your calendar link. After December, a purchased calendar stays fully open, so the doors aren't thrown away on Boxing Day. There's a labelled demo on the Magical Christmas Calendar page that opens three doors, so you can see what it's like first.

It works well alongside a homemade calendar: open the digital door with breakfast, and save the activity card for after school.

When should advent start?

Most advent calendars run from 1 December to 24 December, which keeps things simple. Advent in the church calendar actually starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which in 2026 is Sunday 29 November, so some families start then. Either is fine. If you have an elf arriving, you might like to start both on the same day; see our Elf on the Shelf ideas for more.

Making it work with more than one child

• Take turns opening. Odd days for one child, even days for the other, and write it on the calendar so there are no arguments.
• Choose activities for the youngest. Older siblings can be "helpers" for crafts that are too simple for them.
• One calendar each for treats, one shared for activities. This keeps the peace and the shared activities still happen.