Advent Calendar ideas

I did a post recently on Instagram about some advent calendar ideas and how you can make it more eco-friendly.  One of the options is having a reusable calendar and doing activities rather than having things in the advent.  Or you could always have a mix - maybe a chocolate coin one day, activity another day, joke another day and a small toy another day.  

But if you decide to go with activities, what could you do?  I've put together this list of suggestions.  It's not a "must do" list or in any sort of order (eg the first item on the list doesn't have to be done on 1st December, or maybe even at all!), more of a list of ideas for you to take away however many you might need and to do them whenever/however suits you best!  

I'd suggest trying to incorporate things you might already do.  You don't want to be giving yourself a whole host of extra things to be doing in December.  Some of these might seem basic but depending on how old your little one is, you might find that even the simplest of tasks are really exciting! It's written from the perspective of being a toddler mum and thinking about what I would quite like to do or what my toddler might want to do.  You might have other things eg if you have a kid who loves lego you might make one of your activities a day of making Christmas things out of the lego you have!

So, to that end, here are some suggested activities (in no particular order):

Go to pick out your Christmas tree 

Make a gingerbread house

Making ornaments (eg salt dough ornaments, from card, from twigs or pine cones etc)

Bake Christmas cookies

Make a Christmas fortune teller (I got the idea from here)

Baking gingerbread men

Make Christmas cards

Send Christmas cards

Put together some items for a shoebox appeal

Carols by candlelight concert

See some Christmas lights (town centre, or is there a house in your neighbourhood that goes all out?) or go on a Christmas light hunt!

Buy some food or other items for a local food bank or baby bank

Hot chocolate with all the trimmings

Decorating the tree

Donate books to a free/little library

Put together a bird feeder

Litter picking

Donate clothing (perhaps a coat or hat/scarves)

Care package or cards for a care home

Small gift or card for the postman

Present for the teacher

Visit Santa

A Christmas bath! (A bubble bath but with Christmas bubbles!)

Letter or drawing to Santa

Decorate your windows with Christmas drawings

Christmas movie night/afternoon

Make some Christmas models from playdough

Treasure hunt for Christmas items in the house

Wrap up Christmas presents

Make wrapping paper

See if you can find some deer (is there a farm or estate nearby that has deer in a field?)

See if you can find the largest tree in your town centre

Build a snowman (or make one if there is no snow!)

Find some holly or other things outdoors 

Make a paperchain

Read a Christmas book

Have a Christmas party/dance around the living room to Christmas songs

Take part in some carol singing

Make a snowflake chain

Go to a Christmas market

Write down your Christmas wishes

Make mince pies

Make a Christmas gift

Random Act of Kindness

Christmas jumper day

Family game night

Make a present for your nursery key worker

Make a gratitude list

Go sledging 

Go ice skating

Make eco friendly reindeer food

Do a Christmas jigsaw

Make crackers

Light a Christmas candle

Kids make dinner

Do a Christmas cross-stitch

Go to see a pantomine

Go for a wintery walk (you could see if your local park has anything specially set up for this)

So there you have it - a few ideas to work with!  But how do you put activities in an advent calendar?  You could either put in a note with the activity written on it or a picture to show what the activity is, or you could always have a small item to match the activity eg a cookie cutter or a Christmas tree decoration.  

Enjoy!