Easy DIY Advent Calendar with FREE Printables
I am so excited to share this family tradition with you all today! This is the second year in a row our family has done this simple, easy Advent calendar. The kids had the best time with it last year, and I really think it helped their understanding of the true meaning of Christmas, why we give, and the story of the birth of Christ. It can be so easy to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of this busy season that we forget what it's really all about. That's why I came up with this advent calendar. I wanted the kids to have a daily reminder of why we're celebrating and that this whole season isn't just about receiving gifts.
The concept is simple: every day, the kids get to take down one card from the Advent calendar. We start at 24 and count down the days until Christmas. The kids love this part because they can physically see how many days they have left until Christmas. Inside each card is a piece of paper that has a scripture passage to read that day, as well as an activity for the day. We love sitting down as a family and reading the scripture passages and talking to the kids about their meaning. It's a special time as a family. For the activities, one day might say "bake Christmas cookies," and one day might say "buy someone's food in the drive-through." The activities include fun things for us to do as a family, as well as acts of kindness to do for others. We want to instill in our kids the concept of giving during this season instead of always receiving, so we like to incorporate a lot of giving and acts of kindness into our Advent activities. Even on the days the kids don't "get" something out of it, they are so excited to do something for someone else, and I love that they're learning the joy that can come from giving to others!
Now, for how I made the calendar: I had an old frame sitting around that was gold, so years ago I painted it white and had my dad cut me a piece of wood for the center. I then nailed the wood to the frame, sanded the wood really well, then painted it with chalk paint and made a chalkboard out of it. To string up the cards, I attached these screws to the sides of the wood at the back of the frame on either side.
Then I took some twine and tied it tightly to each screw on both side and brought it around the front of the frame.
You really don't need a chalkboard for this, though; that's just what I had lying around. You could easily just use an old frame (Goodwill always has a ton for cheap) or even just string them up on a string somewhere in your house (along your mantle would work). Lots of different ways to do this, so just pick what works best for your family. Next, just print out the number cards I've created (I added a few extra days in case you wanted to start Advent a little early). There are no rules to this; cut them, then fold them. For the activities, you can print the ones I've made, or you can just write out your own inside each card. Once you have your number cards and activity cards, just string them up with basic clothespins from Dollar Tree, or you can get the cute mini ones from Hobby Lobby (they have all colors), like we have.
One thing I did differently this year to simplify things a little is that I printed off a calendar from Microsoft Word for December and wrote down the activities we have going on, school activities, church activities, appointments, travel plans, etc. Then on that same calendar, I wrote down the Advent activity for the day. I did this because I wanted to be able to see what we had going on and make sure I didn't schedule a Christmas cookie baking day on a day we would be traveling or a trip to see Christmas lights on a night when my husband was working. That was a mistake I made last year, and it got a little complicated. Luckily, the kids were too little to really notice, but this year, I know they'll catch on if we skip days or don't do the day's activity. So this just makes my life much easier.
However you choose to do this, I hope it will be a blessing to you and your family and that your kids will start to really grasp the true meaning of the season: Christ's birth and the gift God gave us by sending His son.
Merry Christmas, friends!
XOXO, Anna
