Make the Christmas countdown extra special with these Advent Calendar Ideas for Kids. Ideas for acts of kindness, activities to do as a family, and toys and treats.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the link, this site will receive a small commission with no affect on your purchase price. I hope you find the links helpful!

Every kid seems to countdown to Christmas. I always loved having an advent calendar. Of course, it was the small, cardboard ones with the tiny chocolates behind each door.

This past summer we found some beautiful, wooden advent calendars. Some even played music behind each door!  Look at the musical St. Nick’s Toy Shoppe! I couldn’t resist this gorgeous, wooden house advent calendar.  It’s so beautiful! Each door opens and has plenty of room for toys, treats, or notes.

Those advent calendars can be a bit spendy, but I also love this idea to make your own Christmas calendar with paper rolls from  Coffee & Vanilla.

I love the idea of being able to put whatever you want in the calendar for the kids. It gives you a chance to mix it up a bit. My favorite idea is to fill it with activities or ways to spread kindess, along with toys or treats.  Since yesterday was World Kindess Day, I’ll start there.

Advent Calendar Ideas

Kindness / Service

• Go caroling at a nursing home
• Help a neighbor: take in their trash, rake their leaves, shovel their driveway
• Fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child (collection starts today!)
• Donate to a toy drive
• Pass out bows or gift wrap to shoppers/neighbors. I love these printable notes!
• Leave Christmas treats at a neighbor’s door

Here are some much bigger random acts of kindness lists:

• 101 Random Acts of Kindness Ideas from Natural Beach Living
• 25 Free Acts of Kindness from Sweet Tea and Saving Grace
• 30 Days of Holiday Kindness from Kiddie Matters
• Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar from Coffee Cups and Crayons.

Activities

• Scavenger hunt
• Bake Christmas cookies
• Decorate the Christmas tree
• Visit Santa at the mall
• Spa Day
• Build a gingerbread house
• Make a fort or “igloo”
• Family game night

• Have a snowball fight
• Christmas craft
• Make snowflakes
• Go out to eat
• Attend a local holiday event
• Have a hot chocolate date
• Go sledding
• Drive around in jammies to see Christmas lights

Toys and Treats

• Christmas pencils
• Ornaments
• Christmas stamps, stickers, or tattoos
• Books
• Mittens
• Chapstick
• Small stuffed animals
• Notepad or activity book
• Small pieces of candy (if they have too much Halloween candy, pull from there!)
• Fancy piece of stationary and pen to write to Santa

You can buy these separately at various store – we happen to get most of the items from the dollar store – or you can get a lot of them in this Christmas stocking stuffer assortment or Christmas party favor assortment.

I can’t wait to use this advent calendar this year! It’s going to be a great tradition!

We’re going to use items from all three categories. Little Christmas gifts like erasers and stamps from the dollar store are already inside some of the compartments. Also, we’ll be using rolls of paper for the random acts of kindness and family activities.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions? Do you do an advent calendar or Christmas countdown for your kiddos?

More Like This