Advent Calendar. Christmas Village. Advent activities.

 

This year we made an advent calendar in the form of a Christmas village. We used  Advent Calendar Kit that includes 24 Christmas houses and 24 ribbons. It was a fun activity to do with my daughter – we folded and glued the houses together. After they were ready, we decorated our Christmas village with toys.

When my daughter was asleep, I put small notes describing an advent activity into each house as well as a small gift. These houses can also be used as Christmas tree decorations if there is no space to set up a Christmas village.

 

And here’s a list of 24 advent activities that we did.

1. Make a Christmas wreath

The first activity was making a Christmas wreath. First I cut out the center of the paper plate and painted it in green with acrylic paint. After it dried, Scarlett painted on it using round sponge brushes – they leave beautiful polka dot marks. Then we let it dry again, Scarlett squeezed glitter glue on it, and I helped her to spread it around the wreath. Then we placed buttons, pompoms, pieces of garland, and some pasta on it. I think it came out pretty good for a toddler craft!

 

2. Make salt dough ornaments

We made this salt dough ornaments using this recipe: mix 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1.5 cups of water. We made 4 ornaments and had a little salt dough left. First, I made round shapes using one of the bowls, then we had Scarlett leave her handprints, made holes in the ornaments using straws, and after that I put them in the oven for 2 hours at 200 degrees. After they were done baking we painted them with acrylic paint. We made 2 of these for our grandmas for Christmas – one grandma loves owls, and the other one loves foxes. We signed the back of the ornament with a date and Scarlett’s name. I think they came out fun!

 

3. DIY plastic ball ornament

We made this fun Christmas ball ornament. I got these Clear Plastic Fillable Christmas Balls. I cut out our family pictures slightly smaller than the size of the ball, glued them together back to back and inserted inside the ball. I also filled it with snow – you can either make it yourself by mixing glitter and salt or get a  sparkling snow. I cut the bottom of the picture shorter so that the snow can move freely to both sides. And in the end, we painted snowflakes on the ornament with glitter glue.

4. Give hugs to everyone

 

 

5. Make Christmas cards

We made these Christmas cards for grandparents by using the shape of Scarlett’s handprint. First I traced Scarlett’s hand, then cut out green and white handprint shapes to make a Christmas tree on the front of the card and angel wings in the middle. We decorated the front with sticky gems and Scarlett decorated the middle of the card with glitter glue.

 

6. Christmas theme Cheerio playsheet

Here’s a fun Christmas themed activity with Cheerios. Print out these 2 sheets – deer and snowman and arrange Cheerios on deer’s noses and around snowman to look like snow.

 

7. Make a jingle bells shaker

I got these jingle bells back in November so we had time to play with them with Scarlett. She loves these little bells, and therefore I’m including a few jingle bells activities in this advent calendar. One of the simplest ways to make a shaker is to place bells on pipe cleaners. Bracelets, necklaces, ornaments can be done in a smiliar way.

 

8. Make snow dough

We made a snow dough with this recipe –  4 cups of baking soda and 1 cup of hair conditioner. You can add more conditioner if you like it to be more sticky or less if you like it to be crumbly. We did some sensory play with snow and built this little snowman.

 

9. Read a Christmas book

Our favorite Christmas book is Stick Man. We love all books by Julia Donaldson, especially Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, and this one. It’s an easy story for toddlers to understand and it’s got a great Christmas spirit.

 

10. Jingle bells fishing

Here’s another activity with jingle bells.  Make a fishing pole by inserting a strong magnet into a small bag and by attaching it to a pen with a string or pipe cleaner. Then try to catch bells with this fishing pole and place the caught ones into a bowl.

 

11. Decorate a playdough gingerman with buttons

For this activity, I rolled out playdough and cut out the shape of a gingerman with a knife. Then we decorated it with these colorful buttons, fun pasta and sticky gems.

 

12. Throw jingle bells into cups

And another activity with jingle bells. Tape a few plastic cups to the edge of the table and start throwing  bells into cups from a short distance. Whoever gets more bells into their cup wins!

 

13. Winter/Christmas sensory and imaginery play

Different fillers can be used to create snow – white rice, cornstarch, cotton balls. Scarlett loves to transfer things from one container to another, so we used white rice. I placed a white rice container on top of a light pad, so we were digging to the bottom of the container to find the light. And we did a lot of rice transferring. I put a blanket underneath the container, but of course rice made it everywhere anyway. It did require extra vacuum cleaning, but I think 40 minutes of playing with rice was worth it.

 

14. Record a holiday video

This is another simple activity to do that can be added to the family memories archive. Record a video of your child singing a Christmas song, a video of your family singing a song together, or a holiday wish for your relatives and friends. It’s fun to record and great for memories!

 

15. Make real or playdough cookies with cookie cutters

 

 

16.Christmas food art

My daughter is such a picky eater, so I always try to come up with creative ways to present food to her.

 

17. DIY wreath picture frames

And we made another gift for our grandmothers. First, I cut out round frames from a cardboard box (doughnut shape), and painted them in blue. Then I put some glue on it and Scarlett helped me place  colorful buttons on them. After it all dried, I glued pictures of grandmas with their granddaughter to the back of the frame. These frames can be converted into Christmas ornaments by making a hole on top and inserting a ribbon.

 

18. Feed a reindeer with food

Make a reindeer from a box, by drawing reindeer’s face on a box if the box is white, or by taping a sheet of paper with reindeer’s face to a box. Then cut out an opening in the mouth area. Feed with pom poms, sponge pieces or cheerios by using a spoon, tweezers or  hands.

19. “Find it” winter sensory bottle

This activity is inspired by this Find it Game. We made our DIY version by placing colored rice into a bottle, and by adding tiny winter toys, Christmas Erasers  and colored bows. The idea of the game is for you to name the object and for the child to find it in the bottle by turning it and shaking it. Older kids can play “I spy” game with this bottle.

 

20. Decorate a paper Christmas tree with playdough

Here’s a fun Christmas tree decorating activity. Cut out Christmas tree from construction paper or draw it with a marker on white paper. Then help your child to make little balls from playdough so he or she can place them on the Christmas tree. We also squeezed spaghetti-like shapes with Fun Factory and made candy canes.

 

21. Christmas memory game

Here’s a free printable for a Christmas theme memory game. Print out 2 copies of each page, cut them into cards and play a Christmas memory game.

 

22. Wrapping paper craft

Here’s an example of a wrapping paper with our designs. We used Crafts Paper Roll but the back of any regular wrapping paper can be used for this. We also used this fingerpaint set which includes a great sturdy paper and 3 paint tubes. We did some thumb stamping, and ink pad stamps are perfect for this. After Scarlett did the stamping, I drew little details to thumb prints to make a deer, a snowman, a Christmas tree, etc. Then we added sparkly lines with glitter glue, and painted polka dots with finger paint and sponge brushes.

23.Take holiday family photos

Sometimes I forget to take our family pictures by the Christmas tree if I don’t actually plan it, so I included it as an advent calendar activity.

 

24. Jingle bells drop with dice

Somehow Scarlett’s favorite activity with jingle bells is a very simple one – dropping them into a paper towel tube, filling it up, and then lifting the paper towel to watch them spread around. Later on, we added a dice to this activity and made a new game out of it – each person rolls the dice, and depending on what number you get – you get to drop these many balls into the tube 🙂 You can make the dice yourself by printing these files – this one has numbers going up to 3 so it’s easier for 2 year olds to use it, and this one has numbers going up to 6.

Some other advent calendar activity ideas:

• Color some Christmas pictures
• Sing a Christmas song
• Dance to a Christmas song
• Decorate a gingerbread house
• Write a Christmas wish and hang it on a tree
• Make your own ornaments
• Make a gift for a teacher
• Donate old toys
• Make a paper garland
• Take cupcakes to your local fire department
• Write a letter to Santa
• Watch a Christmas movie
• Have a DIY snowball fight
• Wear Christmas socks
• Leave a ‘thank you’ note to your mail carrier
• Make mason jar snow globe
• Donate to a charity

 

Here’s what I put inside these Christmas houses – a few unique handmade Christmas tree ornaments, I got a set of finger puppets and put one into each house (that filled a lot of houses), Christmas Erasers are great for older kids since they fill a lot of houses and are fun for creating Christmas sensory bin/scene. I also got a few Kinder Joy Eggs – these are great since they have a treat and a toy, and they perfectly fit inside these houses. The set of 24 Pack Mini Animal Plush Toys is also great for filling all 24 houses.

Thank you for reading this post! Hope you found something useful. There’s still time to do an advent calendar – even if it’s just for 12 or 7 days before Christmas. Happy holidays!

 

You can also check out my post about Gift ideas for 2-3 year olds: educational games and toys .