Fun ways to Count Down to Christmas!

It’s the beginning of December (already), and time in our house to get out an advent calendar to countdown to Christmas. I always had one each year as a child, so continued the tradition with my girls. 

With them away now, I send them each a calendar this time of year; we love the ones with chocolate inside. What a nice surprise it is for children away from home to get one of these in the mail! 

Over the years, we have either bought or made our own calendars. When they were little, it was so exciting for the girls to get up in the morning and open that day’s little door. Whether a cute picture, saying, or little candy or treat, it didn’t matter- it was the anticipation that made it fun.

Here are some really cute ideas for making your own advent calendars with your kids. Get started now so you can start opening them. And make it a yearly tradition! 

Note, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click on the links, you’ll go right to the products.

Paper trees and chains. With just little strips of construction paper, you can make an adorable tree like this.

Your kids can easily cut these strips for you. While they’re doing this, chat with them about what kinds of things they may want to do this winter/holiday season. This will give you some inspiration for what you’ll be writing on the strips before making them into the tree. When they rip open each of the rings, there will be an activity for that day. Make sure they are things that are doable/easy for you to implement, taking into account your time and calendar. Some ideas:

• Make ice cream sundaes
• Make s’mores
• Make cookies
• Make a gingerbread house kit
• Watch a holiday movie with popcorn
• Make Christmas cards
• Go ice skating (on a weekend perhaps)
• Go sledding (if you have some snow…)
• Get the Christmas tree
• Decorate the tree

You get the idea. Another way to display these rings of paper is in the form of a chain. Hang it from the ceiling in your kids’ room, and it’s an easy way for them to rip down a ring each day. My husband actually turned me on to this idea. He made a chain like this when I was preparing to leave a job last year. He did a countdown using this chain that was SO cute. 

Make a game. My daughter created this advent calendar using the game “would you rather”. How cute!

This looks like a lot of work, but kids love stuff like this. She must have found this idea on the Internet somewhere and made it happen. I can see games like ‘truth or dare,’ ‘have I ever,’ or trivia questions working for this, too.

Muffin tin. Use two muffin tins (12 in each = 24 days to Christmas). Just trace cups on top of construction paper or fabric, to make circles to cut out. Fill each tin with small candies or items (like small nail polish or lip glosses, toys) and cover and glue on the paper/fabric circles, numbered 1-24. I wish I could find a photo of the one I made out of a variety of holiday themed fabrics. You can make these so colorful and creative. This is just regular green and red construction paper but is still cute.

Just prop the tins up against a wall or somewhere they stay upright. 

Of course, if you’d rather just buy a calendar, that works! There are so many varieties out there. For older girls, or yourself, how about 12 days of beauty? 24 different teas? Even milk bones for your dogs!!

I hope you enjoy.