30 Fun Holiday Activities for Your Advent Calendar

Inside: Get this free printable set of chalkboard-style Advent calendar activities. Festive, adorable, and easy peasy. Perfect for busy families!

Confession: My love for the holiday season is an all-consuming kind of love that sometimes gets me in trouble.

For example, one Halloween night, my husband and I had just got the baby to sleep and were zoning out on the couch.

Tomorrow is November, I thought. Then December!

My mind buzzed with visions of decorating the tree, baking cookies stuffing my face with cookies, and setting up the Advent calendar.

Every year, we use our December calendar as an Advent activity calendar, filling it with fun Advent calendar activities from “watch a holiday movie” to “find holiday books at the library” to “bake something yummy” and everything in between.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, download a free printable set of Advent calendar activities (chalkboard style!) to fill your calendar with holiday fun.

What Happens When You Love the Holidays *Too* Much

“Oh my goodness!” I said. “I just had an awesome idea.”

My poor husband turned to me – looking wary of the crazed look in my eye. “What’s that?”

I took a big breath. “What if…what if we started the Advent calendar on November first?”

He blinked once.

“We could fit in way more fun stuff to do!” I clapped my hands.

“Hmm,” he said. He loves the holidays as much as I do, so as the idea sunk in for him, I was poised and ready to accept gushing over my stroke of brilliance.

I kept going. “That would give us enough days to do everything we want to do!”

“Well…” he started. He looked like he was about to step into a field of bouncing, excited eggshells. “Wouldn’t that be…a lot to keep up with?”

I cocked my head. “We already have the whole list of Advent ideas from last year that we didn’t get to!”

He took a step into the field. Anticipating the crunch. “It seems like – maybe that would make it less special? If we do it for two months straight?”

“Oh,” I said.

From Bummer to Good News…for You

I pictured an Advent calendar times two, plus a few extra days. An Advent calendar that becomes like the page-a-day calendar that halfway into January we start forgetting to tear off every day. An Advent calendar that blends into daily life like wallpaper.

And I saw his point. Unfortunately.

But here’s the good news: I redirected my all-consuming love of the holiday season into something special just for you.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

30 Fun Holiday Activities to Fill Your Advent Calendar

So because:

1. I am crazy in love with the holidays, and
2. I have way more Advent calendar ideas than days to do them, and
3. Chalkboard is the new black

Below, you can download a full set of chalkboard-style Advent calendar activity cards, FREE for you to make your holidays merry and bright and chalkboard-y, all at once.

Aren’t they adorable?!

How to Use Your Advent Calendar Activities

After you download and print the Advent calendar activities below, just cut them out and throw them in your Advent calendar.

Don’t have an Advent calendar yet? Here are a few options for setting up your Advent activity calendar:

• Get a ready-made Advent calendar and fill it with the free printable holiday activities below. Bonus: You’ll be able to reuse it every year! My current favorites are this adorable wall calendar and this wooden calendar you can set on a shelf. Side note: We bought a cheap Advent calendar at Target one year, but it starting falling apart before Christmas Day. So a few years ago, we invested in this wooden Advent calendar, and we love it. Still going strong! With that said, I’ve had my eye on this light-up wooden calendar because it’s so, so pretty.

• Make your own DIY Advent calendar. Be creative! You can make your own Advent activity calendar from scrapbook paper, boxes or paper bags with these cute number stickers, toilet paper rolls, or LEGOs (any LEGO-obsessed kid would love this!).
• Or to keep things super easy, you can throw the cards in a glass bowl and have the kiddos pick a card each morning.

What Makes This Advent Activity Calendar Different

When I put this list of Advent calendar activities together, it was important to me that we focus on activities that align with the spirit of the holiday season. In other words, I didn’t want a list of holiday activities that would require that we spend a bunch of money – or that we cram so much into the holiday season that we end up collapsing from exhaustion.

Before you download your free printable Advent calendar fillers below, here’s a quick list of the fun holiday activities you’ll find inside:

• Draw a holiday picture (perfect for younger kids!)
• Make pancakes for dinner
• Make a holiday card (kids can include the holiday picture they drew, too!)
• Take a horse carriage ride (some outdoor shopping centers have complimentary carriage rides during the holiday season)
• Drink apple cider
• Watch a holiday movie
• Look at holiday lights
• Drink hot chocolate
• Find a gift for someone (this can include looking through your own closet!)
• Make a gift for someone
• Bake something yummy
• Find holiday books at the library
• Find toys to give to charity
• Feed the birds
• Write a holiday story
• Stay up late (our kids love to combine this one with one of our favorite family board games!)
• Read a holiday story
• Trim the Christmas tree
• Camp out under the tree (slumber party!)
• Make paper snowflakes
• Sing holiday songs
• Wrap presents for someone (this is my trick for getting the kids excited about helping – it’s a treat just like all the others!)
• Make a snow angel
• Go ice skating
• Call a loved one
• Unwrap one present early
• Toast marshmallows
• Eat by candlelight
• Make a gingerbread house
• Have a family game night (make sure you have some fun board games for all ages!)

Download Your Free Advent Calendar Activities

After you get your Advent calendar squared away, you can get the More Joy, Less Stress: 2018 Holiday Planner.

1. Download the sheets. You’ll get the printables, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to download and subscribe. (Don’t see your favorite holiday activity on the cards? You’ll also get a blank sheet you can print, then use a white marker like this one to write in your own activity.)
2. Print. I designed them to print on Avery business cards for inkjet or laser printers. Or you can just print them on regular paper or card stock. (If you go the business card route and the lines don’t PERFECTLY line up, please don’t sue me for ruining Christmas.)
3. Cut. Or if you’re like me and you can’t cut a straight line to save your life, fold and tear to get a charmingly casual look.
4. Pop the cards into your Advent calendar, and you’re DONE. Now go eat some Christmas cookies.

Download: More Joy, Less Stress: 2018 Christmas Planner

Your Turn

What are your favorite Advent calendar activities? Share in a comment below!

Credits: Fonts include Return to Sender, Mission Script, Bergamot Ornaments, Noyeux Joel, and DH Snowflakes; the background is from Lil Blue Boo.

Hi, I'm Kelly. I'm a mom of four, a recovering perfectionist, and the author of Happy You, Happy Family. Parenting is hard enough without all the guilt we heap on top of ourselves. So let's stop trying to be perfect parents and just be real ones. Sound good? Join my mailing list and as a bonus, you'll get 25+ incredibly helpful cheat sheets that will ease your parenting struggles.