An activity advent calendar swaps the candy countdown for one small thing to do together each day from December 1st to the 24th. Below: 12 weeknight-easy ideas from a 24-activity set, a blank 24-box calendar grid to plan them into, and 3 kindness ideas for the days that deserve something quieter. Print it and fill the boxes tonight. The full 16-page Family Activity Pack adds all 24 numbered cards, a materials list, and a memory log, $8 at the bottom.
How to use this page: print the grid at 100% scale. Pick 24 activities (12 are listed below), write one in each box, and open one box per day. Slot the 5-minute ideas on school nights and the longer ones on weekends. Nothing here needs a special purchase beyond craft-drawer supplies and groceries.
These come from the 24-activity set in the Family Activity Pack, chosen for low setup and no special shopping. Every one runs in an evening between homework and bed:
| # | Activity | What you need | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bake cookies together and share a plate with a neighbor | cookie ingredients, mixing bowl, tin | ~1 hour |
| 2 | Hot cocoa bar with everyone's favorite toppings | cocoa, marshmallows, mugs, toppings | ~30 min |
| 3 | Walk or drive to see the best holiday lights in town | thermos, warm coats, camera | ~45 min |
| 4 | Cut paper snowflakes and tape them to the windows | paper, scissors, tape | ~20 min |
| 5 | Choose a toy to donate to kids who need it | donation box, toy from the shelf | ~20 min |
| 6 | Family movie night with popcorn under blankets | popcorn, blankets, movie picked | ~2 hours |
| 7 | Write holiday cards to faraway family and friends | cards, pens, stamps | ~30 min |
| 8 | Build a blanket fort in the living room | blankets, chairs, clothespins | ~40 min |
| 9 | Make salt dough ornaments and paint them | flour, salt, water, paint | ~1 hour |
| 10 | Read a winter story out loud by lamplight | a winter storybook, lamp | ~20 min |
| 11 | Have a living-room picnic on a blanket | blanket, dinner plates, floor | ~40 min |
| 12 | Make a paper chain and open one ring each day | paper strips, glue stick, scissors | ~30 min |
The full set runs to 24: it adds stringing popcorn garlands, baking banana bread for someone special, family puzzle night, making gift tags from old cards, camping under the tree with picture books, drawing the family as you are this year, learning how another country celebrates December, a game night with silly prizes, retaking last year's family photo to compare, and writing down three favorite memories from the year. All secular, all kid-tested shapes like the twelve above.
Write one activity per box. Three are filled in to show the rhythm: something hands-on to open the month, a treat night mid-week, and a give-back day at the start of the third week. The rest stay blank for your family's own mix:
One activity per box · open one per day · boxes stay blank until the family votes
| 1 | 2Cut paper snowflakes, tape to windows | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6Hot cocoa bar night | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12Choose a toy to donate | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | spare box: write the rainy-day backup activity here |
Filling order that works: weekends get the long ones (movie night, baking, fort building), school nights get the 20-minute ones (snowflakes, story by lamplight, cards). Put the donation day on a weekend so the drop-off actually happens.
Countdown calendars lean treat-heavy. Give these three a box each, spread across the month:
Roughly 3 to 12, with you adjusting the hands-on share. Little kids dominate the crafts and the fort; older kids run the baking and the card list. The 24-activity set mixes 20-minute weeknight ideas with longer weekend ones so the month holds both. December has a budget side too: the Christmas budget planner prices gifts, food, and travel before the shopping starts.
No. Start whenever the calendar goes up, and fill from that day forward. If you discover this page mid-December, fill the boxes that remain and keep the spare box for a catch-up day. The daily-open habit is the part that lands; the exact date is not.
Skip it. The calendar is a menu, not homework. Most families double up on a weekend or drop the missed activity and nobody remembers by December 20th. The spare box exists for exactly this.
No. The pack is fully secular: baking, crafts, cocoa, lights, and kindness, with no devotional content and no brand characters. Families of any background can run it as-is, and faith-based families add their own traditions alongside.
Print-at-home, write-in pages, no app. Comes as A4 and US Letter PDFs and prints fine in grayscale.
Full Family Activity Pack, 16 pages - $8 →$8 one-time · A4 + US Letter · instant download · personal use, print copies for your own household