Twenty-four folded notes fit in a shoebox. One says “choose tonight’s book”; another says “teach us a silly dance.” Open one after dinner, and there’s a small plan waiting between the dishes and pajamas.
Download this free advent calendar printable for 24 activities to share from December 1 through Christmas Eve. It includes a countdown sheet and cut-apart activity cards, in color and black and white. Use paper, books, and supplies you already have, and move the cards around to fit your family’s week. Jump to: printable and 24 activities · what an advent calendar is · Advent in 2026 · activities by age · DIY calendars · calendar fillers · ideas by theme
Printable advent calendar: 24 activities
Print the countdown sheet and activity cards on US Letter paper, single-sided, at actual size. Choose black and white for a version your child can color. You can display the whole sheet or tuck the cards into a calendar you already own.
The numbers below are December dates: open number 1 on December 1 and number 24 on Christmas Eve. Read through the plans before filling your calendar, especially the baking day, and swap anything that needs supplies you’re out of.
| December date | Activity to share |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pick one of the Christmas coloring pages. Share the picture: your child colors one part, and you color another. |
| 2 | Write or draw a letter to Santa. Your child can tell you what to write, then add a picture beside the words. |
| 3 | Fold scrap paper and draw a snowflake design. You cut the folded paper; your child opens it to see the pattern. |
| 4 | Choose tonight’s story from your shelf. For a daily reading countdown, use the book advent calendar to plan more reading nights. |
| 5 | Bake cookies with a familiar recipe and ingredients you have; you handle the oven. Or draw paper cookies and open a pretend bakery. |
| 6 | Read one of the Christmas poems for kids aloud. Take turns choosing a line to repeat, with a different voice each time. |
| 7 | Play holiday charades. Act out wrapping a present, stirring cookie dough, or pulling on boots while the others guess. |
| 8 | Work on a Christmas word search together. Your child chooses a word; you help find its first letter and follow the rest. |
| 9 | Look for neighborhood lights together, on a short walk or from a window. Each person picks a favorite shape or color. |
| 10 | Read Santa’s reindeer names and choose one to draw. Tell each other what that reindeer might do on a day off. |
| 11 | Put on a song you already have and take turns leading a silly dance. The leader chooses the moves; everyone else follows. |
| 12 | Learn how to say Merry Christmas in Spanish. Write the greeting in a homemade card for someone you want to wish a happy holiday. |
| 13 | Make a reading nook with a blanket and cushions. Bring a book inside and read until someone wants to come out. |
| 14 | Choose one of the Christmas elf ideas using things at home. A paper elf or a sock puppet can join the game. |
| 15 | Ask a relative about a December they remember from childhood. Listen together in person or on a call, then draw one detail. |
| 16 | Turn a piece of used cardboard into a star. You cut the outline; your child decorates it and chooses where to display it. |
| 17 | Hide a drawing in the living room and give clues to find it. Switch roles so your child can send you searching, too. |
| 18 | Arrange a snack you already have into a festive picture. You do any cutting; your child chooses the shapes and puts them together. |
| 19 | Fold paper into a little book. Draw something you enjoyed together this month, and add a title your child chooses. |
| 20 | Pick a small act from the kindness advent calendar. Ask someone at home what would help, and do that together. |
| 21 | Sing a Christmas song your family knows. Take turns keeping the beat with claps, or humming while someone else sings. |
| 22 | Leave a thank-you note for something specific: a ride, a meal, a bedtime story. Your child can write, draw, or dictate it. |
| 23 | Make place cards for the people sharing your holiday meal. Let your child draw a small picture beside each person’s name. |
| 24 | Choose one of your family’s Christmas Eve traditions: read “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” follow Santa with NORAD, or share a family memory. |
For the last card, Project Gutenberg’s illustrated edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas, commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” gives you the complete poem to read legally for free. The NORAD Tracks Santa program follows Santa each December 24; its official tracker is at noradsanta.org.
If your family skips Santa, address the letter to someone your child loves and turn the elf day into a puppet game. A missed day can stay missed, move to the weekend, or become another reading night. Start with today’s number if December is already underway.
What is an advent calendar?
An advent calendar is a way to count the days until Christmas by opening a numbered door, envelope, or pocket each day. A common format runs from December 1 through December 24. Each number reveals a picture, message, treat, or activity; this printable uses activities for families to do together.
Open the number that matches the date. On December 10, that means number 10. You can then count the unopened spaces to see how many activities remain before Christmas. This calendar ends on Christmas Eve; other calendars include December 25.
The tradition grew from earlier ways of marking the wait. The Weimar City Museum’s history of advent calendars describes homemade counting aids, including chalk marks children erased one at a time, and early printed calendars in Germany. Its collection includes picture sheets, calendars with doors, and a little book with a page to turn each day.
The printable’s fixed December dates make it reusable each year. The religious season of Advent follows a different starting date, which shifts with the calendar.
When does Advent start in 2026?
Advent starts on Sunday, November 29, 2026, in the Roman Catholic calendar. The USCCB’s official 2026 liturgical calendar lists the four Sundays as November 29 and December 6, 13, and 20. Advent is a Christian season of preparation for Christmas; this activity calendar begins on December 1.
If your family observes Advent, you can begin your Sunday traditions on November 29 and open the first activity card on December 1. Families using the calendar as a Christmas countdown can follow the same numbered cards.
An Advent wreath traditionally holds four candles in a circle of evergreen branches. The USCCB’s explanation of Advent describes lighting an additional candle each Sunday as a sign of expectation and hope for Christ’s coming. In Catholic practice, three candles are usually purple and one is rose; the rose candle is lit on the third Sunday. You can make a paper version together and add a paper flame each week.
Activities by age
Adjust what your child does within the activity. These age bands are suggestions for sharing the calendar; choose the version that suits your child’s interests and comfort with the materials.
Ages 2–4: you read and prepare; your child chooses
Read the card aloud and offer a concrete choice: the red crayon or the green one, the mouse picture or the reindeer. You prepare the snowflake cuts and cardboard star. Your child can unfold, arrange, and decorate.
For the word search, point to a picture or find a familiar letter together. A letter to Santa can be a drawing with a sentence you write underneath. During a poem, pause for a sound your child wants to repeat. Keep the rest of the page for another evening.
Ages 5–7: share the words and the jobs
Your child might read a familiar word, number the envelopes, or dictate a clue for the treasure hunt. On the card-making day, you can write the greeting on scrap paper for them to copy or trace if they want.
Give siblings different parts of one plan. One child chooses the snack design while another arranges the food; you handle the cutting. Let them alternate who opens the daily card, and keep a shared place for finished drawings.
Ages 8–10: offer decisions they can carry through
Invite your child to rearrange a few cards around the family schedule. They can write the treasure-hunt clues, read a familiar recipe with you, or record a relative’s memory in the little book.
If they want a longer project, let yesterday’s book or drawing continue today. An older child can choose a poem for you to read together and explain which part caught their attention. You can still take a turn choosing, too.
How to make a DIY advent calendar
Start with the container or paper you have. A shoebox of numbered notes works immediately; envelopes, a paper chain, and reused bags give you three other ways to reveal one activity at a time.
The assembly times below are planning estimates with supplies gathered. Children around age 3 and up can choose colors and decorate alongside you; you prepare the cuts and set up the calendar. Use child-safe scissors and a glue stick; hot glue and craft knives stay with adults.
Numbered envelopes in a box
Materials: 24 used envelopes or sheets of scrap paper, a pencil, tape, and a shoebox. Assembly: about 20–30 minutes.
- Check used envelopes for personal information and cover it. If you’re making envelopes, fold paper around a card and tape the sides.
- Have your child write or decorate numbers 1–24 on the fronts.
- Fold one activity card into each envelope. Keep December 24’s plan in the last one.
- Stand the envelopes in the box in date order. Put opened cards behind the unopened ones.
A paper-chain countdown
Materials: scrap paper, a pencil, scissors, and tape or a glue stick. Assembly: about 20–30 minutes.
- You cut 24 broad strips. Together, number them and copy one activity onto each strip.
- Turn strip 1 into a loop, with its number visible, and secure it.
- Thread strip 2 through the first loop before closing it. Continue through number 24.
- Keep the chain where you can bring it to the table. Open the dated end link each day and read its activity together.
Leave enough room around the writing to open a link without tearing through the words. Your child can color each strip before you assemble it.
Reused paper bags on a shelf
Materials: 24 clean paper bags, or a mix of bags and envelopes, plus scrap-paper labels and tape. Assembly: about 15–25 minutes.
- Check that the bags are empty and dry. Fold large ones down to a handy size.
- Let your child decorate number labels; you tape one to each bag.
- Place one folded activity inside and fold the top closed.
- Arrange them on a shelf or in a basket, with numbers facing out. Bring down the day’s bag together.
You can save the bags for next year and replace only the notes. If you have fewer bags, fill the gaps with folded, numbered paper.
What to put in an advent calendar (no candy, no shopping)
Fill the pockets with activity slips, shared-time coupons, clues, or personal notes. Paper fits small spaces, and you can change the plan before opening it.
Activity slips: cut apart the printable cards and use one per date. Put baking on a day when you’ll be home, and keep a reading or talking card handy for an evening with less time. The paper-cookie option keeps the bakery game available when ingredients run out.
Shared-time coupons: name something you can do with what’s available, such as “choose our bedtime book,” “teach me your favorite game,” or “pick a song for us to dance to.” Add when you’ll use it: after dinner today or Saturday morning. That gives your child something definite to look forward to.
Treasure-hunt clues: lead to a familiar book, a drawing, or the next activity. “Look where we keep the blankets” can send your child to the reading-nook card. Draw the location for a child who prefers pictures, and keep hiding spots within easy reach.
Personal notes: write down a moment you enjoyed: “I liked hearing you do the reindeer voice.” Your child can make a note for you as well. Keep a pencil nearby so a favorite activity can become tomorrow’s card.
Advent calendar ideas by theme
Books: fill the dates with stories from your shelf or library. A book advent calendar follows one reading choice each day and helps you plan a countdown around books you can access.
Kindness: use the kindness advent calendar for small acts children can help choose and carry out. It gives this theme its own daily prompts; the mixed calendar above includes one day to try it.
Reverse advent calendar: instead of opening something each day, your family adds one item to a box: a can of food, a pair of warm socks, a book in good condition. On Christmas Eve, take the box together to a food bank, shelter, or library drive near you. Your child chooses the item; you check what the place accepts.
Dinosaurs, horses, or unicorns: let your child draw a favorite creature beside each number on the black-and-white sheet. Keep the activities, or borrow the reading-day idea from the book advent calendar and choose stories about that interest.
Nativity or Christian Advent calendar: your family can pair a daily card with a short reading or a figure in your Nativity scene. Add one figure each day, and place the baby on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, as your family’s tradition goes.
Idunn’s take
At Idunn, we want to nurture curiosity in children and in the adults sharing the page. Our choice for this calendar is a mix of reading, making, listening, and playing, with room to repeat a favorite. Let your child choose where today’s drawing goes, or which story you’ll open tonight.
Sources
- Stadtmuseum Weimar. “Zur Geschichte der Adventskalender,” in the family activities archive, November–December 2020. Historical counting aids and printed calendars; entries for November 28–30 and December 3–4. In German.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America 2026, key dates and November–December 2026 entries. Advent begins November 29; subsequent Sundays fall on December 6, 13, and 20.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “What is Advent?”, undated. Meaning of the season and the Advent wreath. The page’s dated banner refers to 2025; the 2026 dates above come from the official calendar.
- A Visit from St. Nicholas, commonly called “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Project Gutenberg ebook 17135. Edition credited to Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, Houghton Mifflin, 1912; digital edition updated January 10, 2026.
- North American Aerospace Defense Command. “NORAD Tracks Santa”, undated. Official description of the December 24 program.
Sources checked October 15, 2026. The activity selection, age adaptations, and assembly-time estimates are Idunn editorial suggestions.
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