Simple and Stress-Free Advent Activity Ideas!

We are so excited to share our simple and stress-free advent activity ideas with you all today!

The holidays are upon us! Hooray! We can’t wait to take part in the traditions and togetherness our family holds dear to our hearts during this sparkly season. One of our favorite holiday traditions is our advent calendar. Rather than filling the calendar with treats or toys, we plan for a daily outing or activity that encourages time together, creativity, thoughtfulness, and joy… okay, a few gifts sneak in there too.

Our Strategies for Simple and Stress-Free Advent Activities:

First and foremost, these advent activities are meant to be a fun experience for your family, so there is no need to make every one a giant production (although a few giant productions can be great!). We know the holidays are a busy time, so if you plan to do an advent calendar, we encourage you to keep things simple and focused on togetherness. Create advent activities around things that you would already be doing, such as decorating, enjoying a tasty holiday treat, or planned outings.
Plan your advent activities ahead of time (I keep a list going on my phone all year in case a random moment of inspiration strikes) and keep them organized on a calendar. We like to have a general plan for the month, but we keep the schedule flexible in case of last minute changes. This means we don’t have a concrete plan for every day at the beginning of the month, but we do have plenty of activity ideas to fill the days in as the month goes along.
Use the advent activities as an opportunity to spend time with family and friends! We plan activities, like ice skating, cookie making, and seeing the lights, with different loved ones. We put these events on the calendar first. We also keep most of these activities secret until Isla opens the advent calendar for the day, as it adds to the excitement and helps us avoid a meltdown if the plan falls through.
Plan more activities than you need so you have flexibility. Make sure to include a variety of super simple activities you can choose from on busy days, or days where plans have changed.
We do give a few gifts (books and Christmas craft supplies) as a part of our advent calendar, as they encourage us to spend time together as a family. To get as much use out of these items as possible, we gift them during the first few days of December so that we can enjoy them as much as possible through the season.

Advent activity outings with family from last year!

Making birdseed ornaments for the birds and squirrels is one of our favorite traditions! Activities like this help teach our kids to think of practical ways to help others.

Our advent calendar is a box with little drawers. Isaac writes the activity for the day on a piece of paper (and if time allows and inspiration strikes, adds a few fun illustrations) and tucks it into the appropriate drawer.

Christmas crafts “wif” Mom (Written just as Isla would say it. Oh, my heart! I love that Isaac chose to do that. I can hear her little voice, before the “th” blends were mastered, whenever I look at this photo!).

Taking 2 extra minutes to put some chocolate chip “eyes” and cherry “noses” in bowls before breakfast leads to festive reindeer pancakes! Isaac made small, medium, and large pancakes, which we stacked to make reindeer faces. Then we broke the bacon into pieces to make antlers. It’s amazing how a few tiny tweaks can turn the everyday into something really special and memorable.

This is a screen shot of a simplified version of our calendar. We color code everything- even our advent activities! You’ll notice about half of the month is planned already, but the other half is open so we can choose activities as we go along that work well with our schedule.

Below is our 2018 list of advent activity ideas. It is likely to grow and change as the month goes along and we find new inspiration. We put a * next to the super simple, flexible activities.

*Open new Christmas books
*Open Christmas Craft Box (have photo examples from Pinterest available as inspiration)
*Open Christmas game (Santa playing cards)
*Open new ornament/decoration
Make Christmas cards and write letters of appreciation
Make Christmas cookies
*Make Christmas crafts
Make reindeer pancakes
*Make snowman soup or peppermint cocoa
*Make Christmas wrapping paper
Make holiday pizza (snowman, wreath, candy cane)
Make birdseed ornaments and/or gingerbread birdhouses
Decorate a gingerbread house (with the cousins)
Donation project with Isla (Rose Haven Women’s Shelter)
Toy clean out/donate
Go to Zoo Lights
Go to Peacock Lane/look at neighborhood lights/peppermint cocoa
Go to visit Santa (with the cousins)
Go to the Nutcracker
Snow Play Day/Make snow ice cream
Home Alone/cheese pizza party
*PJ/Christmas movie day
*Grinch movie/craft
*Dinner by the Christmas tree
*Winter walk collection
*Paint Christmas nails
*Christmas music dance party
Go ice skating
Christmas footprint craft
Make snowflake crafts (paper snowflakes/popsicle stick snowflakes)
*Write and mail a letter to Santa
Prawns and Champagne Night
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day

We can’t wait to kick off this year’s advent calendar on December 1, and we will be sharing highlights each week. If you were planning to do advent activities with your family, we hope these strategies and tips were helpful. May your holiday season be happy, magical, and filled with lots of quality time with the people you love most!