What are good advent calendar activity ideas for kids?

Chocolate advent calendars are usually finished before the school run. An activity calendar lasts longer: behind each door, or inside each envelope, is something to do together rather than something to eat. It also gives a busy month a few minutes a day that belong to nobody’s inbox.

So, what are good advent calendar activity ideas for kids? Here are twenty-four, one for each day, sorted by type, plus what changes for toddlers and teenagers.

What are good advent calendar activity ideas for kids?

Small things to do together, twenty-four of them, that take ten to thirty minutes and use what you already have at home. None needs a screen and none needs shopping. The caveat is that a calendar of activities has to bend to real life. Put the bigger ones on weekends, keep the five-minute ones for school nights, and swap any day that does not fit.

The ideas below work from about age four with a grown-up joining in. Older children can read the day’s idea and run it themselves.

What advent activities can you make at home?

Five making days. Do the paper chain on the first of December, because it counts down the rest.

1. A paper chain countdown. Make a chain with one link for every day left until the 25th. Tear one off each morning.
2. Paper snowflakes. Fold a square of paper into a triangle, fold again, snip shapes out of the edges and unfold. Stick the best ones on a window.
3. Salt dough decorations. Mix flour, salt and water into a stiff dough, cut out shapes, poke a hole for a ribbon, and bake them low and slow with a grown-up. Paint them the next day.
4. A card factory. Make Christmas cards for grandparents, aunts or neighbours from scrap paper, old cards and whatever pens you have.
5. An ice decoration. Fill a shallow tin with water, add a few leaves, berries or bits of orange peel and a loop of string, and freeze it overnight. Hang it outside and watch how long it lasts.

What are cosy advent activities for winter evenings?

Six for the dark evenings, when nobody wants to go out again.

6. A story by lamplight. Turn the big light off, put every screen in another room, and read a story aloud by one lamp.
7. A blanket fort. Chairs, blankets, cushions, and a snack eaten inside it.
8. A warm-drink tasting. Hot chocolate, warm milk, tea: sip each slowly and give it a score out of ten.
9. Games night. A board game or a card game, best of three, and the winner picks the next game. Our list of family board games by age has fifteen, most of them playable in half an hour or less.
10. Shadow puppets. One torch, one bare wall, and hands, paper cut-outs or toys to make the shapes. Put on a short show for whoever is washing up.
11. An indoor picnic. Spread a blanket on the living room floor and eat tea there instead of at the table.

What advent activities can you do outside in December?

Four, and two of them are best in the dark.

12. A light hunt. Go out after dark with a grown-up and count the lit windows and twinkly lights on your street.
13. Doorstep listening. Stand on the doorstep for two minutes and list every winter sound you can hear: a car on wet road, a door, a bird, wind in a bare tree.
14. A table nature hunt. Go out and gather three things to decorate the table: a twig, a cone, a leaf or a stone.
15. The shortest day. In 2026 the winter solstice falls on Monday 21 December, and London gets only 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight.^[2] Notice when it gets dark, then make that evening as cosy as you can.

What are kind advent activities for kids?

Four days that point outwards, at someone outside the house.

16. A card for someone on their own. Write a card or a short note to someone who might be alone this month, then post it or drop it round.
17. Pass something on. Choose a few books or toys you have outgrown to give to someone who will love them.
18. A neighbour’s kindness. Post a drawing through a neighbour’s door, sweep their step, or just make a point of waving.
19. Thank-you day. Each choose one person you would like to thank for something this year, and decide how you will tell them.

What advent activities help you look back on the year?

The last five, which turn December into something you remember.

20. Five things to look forward to. Write or draw the five things you are most looking forward to this month and pin the list where everyone can see it.
21. A family best-of-the-year list. The best day, the best meal, the funniest moment.
22. Draw it twice. Draw the view from a window, then draw it again the way you would like it to look on Christmas morning.
23. A letter to next December. Write a letter to yourselves to open next year. Seal it and keep it with the decorations.
24. Christmas Eve. Phones away for the evening, including the grown-ups’. Each tell your favourite December memory, then set out tomorrow’s breakfast together.

How do you set up an activity advent calendar?

Write each idea on a slip of paper, fold it, and hide it: in numbered envelopes, in a jar, in a stocking, or in the pockets of an advent calendar you already own. Open one a day and read it together.

Plan the month before you fill it. Look at the calendar for school plays, late shifts and visits, and give those days the five-minute ideas. Keep a couple of spare slips for days when the weather or the mood says no. Children often come up with the best ideas themselves, so leave a few blank.

If you would rather not write them out, our Quiet Advent pack has twenty-four ready-to-cut cards, four blank ones for your own ideas, and a one-line-a-day December log to keep with the decorations.

When does advent start?

Advent Sunday, the start of the church season, is Sunday 29 November in 2026.^[1] Most advent calendars ignore that and run from 1 to 24 December, so start whenever suits you. If you start on Advent Sunday, you have two extra days to fill, which is a good excuse for two of your own ideas.

Advent is a Christian season, but you do not need to be religious to keep a calendar. Every idea above is secular; church families can add a reading, a carol or a candle on Sundays.

What advent activities work for toddlers?

Short, sensory ones, mostly about watching and helping. From the list above, the paper chain (they tear, you count), I spy in colours, doorstep listening, the warm-drink tasting and the blanket fort all work from about two or three. Keep each one to five or ten minutes, let them win often, and keep the scissors, the oven and the ice tin with the grown-up.

What advent activities work for teenagers?

Give them the day to run. A teenager can cook the indoor picnic, plan the kindness day, organise games night or write the questions for the best-of-the-year list. The letter to next December is a good one to hand to a teenager to lead.

One rule helps everyone: phones go in another room for the length of the activity, the adults’ included. Twenty minutes is not much to ask, and it is hard to complain about a rule the grown-ups are keeping too.

What is a reverse advent calendar?

Instead of taking something out each day, you put something in. From 1 December, add one item a day to a box, then give the box away before Christmas, often to a food bank. Find your nearest food bank first to see which items it needs most and how to donate them, as the Trussell network asks.^[3] Lists change through the winter, so check again before you drop it off.

It sits well alongside an activity calendar: the activity is for the evening, the reverse advent box is the thing the whole family adds to on the way out of the door.

What if you miss a day?

Skip it, or do two tomorrow. The point of an activity calendar is a few minutes of attention in a loud month, not another thing to keep up with. A missed evening is not a failed advent, and the ones you do manage are the ones that get remembered.