One of my parenting goals this year is to teach my oldest about advent. What better way than through an advent calendar for kids plus daily activities? The combination of reading a bible verse and doing some fun holiday activities such as making decorations, baking cookies and setting up the nativity scene not only teaches about the meaning of Christmas, but will also bring us closer together as a family.
Make Your Own Advent Calendar for Kids
We had lots of fun making the advent calendar together. The basic idea of this calendar is that each day we’ll break open one of the numbers. This is very appealing to Peanut…he can’t wait to punch through the paper to see what’s inside! I also find it quite tempting, I must admit. Inside are 2 slips of paper, one is a Bible verse and one is an advent activity, and a small piece of candy for each of my kids.
This advent calendar for kids is very simple to make. I used toilet paper rolls covered in tissue paper, then covered one end of the roll with another piece. I held them together with clothespins while gluing them together…much easier than trying to keep them from rolling away! Then, I wrote the numbers on…although I forgot about the trunk when I started…so if you’re doing this at home, remember to attach the trunk of the tree before numbering!
Get Your Resources
Then, I stuffed each roll with the appropriate activity, verse and candy. I timed my activities so that some of the more involved ones, such as making cookies, fall on the weekend. You can grab a copy of my advent activities for kids here. I am using Bible verses from Happy Home Fairy, you can find them here. I chose this resource because most advent calendars start with Isaiah, and while that’s great for adults getting a context for advent, I am hoping to help my little ones understand the actual Christmas story. For them, something a little more narrative is best!
Now we’re ready for advent with our advent calendar for kids plus activities! Peanut keeps asking when it will be December 1 so that we can get started. I’m also excited to enjoy the advent season in a new way. While we’ve always done activities such as the advent wreath, setting up the nativity scene and baking cookies, we haven’t ever used an advent calendar for kids. I’m eager to get started and find myself anticipating December 1 almost as much as Peanut!
What will you be doing this advent?
I love it it’s so cute. We’ve done something similar with jars since my oldest was little. (I think I chose jars because there were loads hanging around the house!
#familyfun
Yes! Gotta use what you have hanging around 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Oh my goodness this is fab what a great idea. You get the kids involved and excite them for Christmas. I love this. I look forward to mine being old enough to do this. Thank you for sharing it at #familyfun xx
Yes…I’m so going to punch one open too…so fun!
What a brilliant idea! I will start saving the toilet rolls now! Mine is still a little too small but hope this will be something we can enjoy in later years! Thanks for linking up to #familyfun
We had fun making this one 🙂 Hope you will be able to make use of it later on too.
An advent calendar using loo rolls? Now THIS I think I could make…just need to save up some loo rolls. Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub with this fab idea x