Does your family do an Advent Calendar? When I was growing up, we usually got a chocolate Advent Calendar when we went to get our Christmas Tree. We would go home, decorate our tree, and probably the next day, we would get to start our Advent Calendar.
I love the tradition of Advent Calendars, and I believe it helps kids as they eagerly wait for Christmas to have an Advent Calendar. We buy our kids a chocolate one free of their allergens, but the past few years, we have also purchased LEGO Advent Calendars as part of their Christmas present too. I do also use them to motivate my children too. They don’t get to open them until they are done with school and their homework. On weekends, I make sure the chores are done, before letting them open their Advent Calendars.
This year I purchased their Advent Calendars really early and got a great deal on them on Amazon. Costco also had great prices on the LEGO Advent Calendars the last time I was there. Amazon still has a few left, like this LEGO Friends Advent Calendar, or this Melissa and Doug Advent Calendar that is great for kids of any age and is reusable! Here are the Madeline Chocolate Advent Calendars we purchase each year. We love their chocolate. It’s delicious, and it is free of gluten and eggs!
One of the things our kids love to do is have a scavenger hunt for some of their special gifts, like the Advent Calenders. How many times do you have a fun activity for your kids that actually takes less time to set up than it does for them to do it? If you’re anything like me, not too many. However, if you fill out the form below, we will email you the link to download a FREE PDF of our scavenger hunt clues that you can print. It will take just minutes to hide, and if you hide the clues well, it will probably take your kids a good half hour to enjoy!
Another fun thing we do leading up to Christmas, is we usually read a book like Jotham’s Journey! They tell the Christmas story from the view of a child that might have lived during the time when Jesus was being born. It really made the Christmas story come alive to our kids and helped us all learn some of the history and traditions during that time. They are very interesting stories, and it is so much fun to spend some quality as a family reading these stories together. There are 2 other books in this Storybooks for Advent series. One is Tabitha’s Travels, and the other is Bartholomew’s Passage. We have read all of these stories and love them and the viewpoints into what could have happened during Bible times. If you want these books instantly, you can also download them with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited Program. Right now you can get your first month free, and they can be downloaded to any device! We use Kindle downloadable books often!
If you don’t do Advent Calendars, feel free to comment below and tell us your favorite and holiday or Christmas traditions. I wish you and your family the best holiday season and hope you can find plenty of family-centered activities to create memories with your loved ones!
Related Posts:
Those books look interesting. Are they very long? My kids were excited to open their first door on their advent calendar today!
They aren’t too long. They are designed to be read each day leading up to Christmas. They are like a small chapter book. I think we did a chapter or 2 a night. It’s been a few years since we read them. We’re going to read one again this year. They are very interesting though and give new insight into Bible times and what life was like back then. Kendall might like Tabitha’s Travels.
Cute! I am sending this to a girlfriend with a 7-year-old boy! I think they will have fun with it!
Yay! Thank you! I hope they enjoy it!
WE LOVE advent calendars! This is an especially cute idea.
Thanks and the Scavenger hunt printables could actually be used for anything Christmas themed.
This is so fun! Our nieces and nephews would love this.
Feel free to share it with them. It will actually work for any Christmas themed gift hunt.
Oh my goodness…What a fun calendar its always fun to have a way to encourage children to be involved in family traditions!
Yes, I am big on traditions, and when kids are younger it’s so hard for them to understand time.
I love advent calendars! Thank you for sharing this!
This is super awesome! We love doing calendars for the Christmas countdown. Thank you for this!
Thank you! Yay, have a Merry Christmas!
I love advent calendars. This looks like such fun.
It was fun!
Noelle -what great ideas! I downloaded the printables for my niece and nephew. My boys are 16 and 20 and still eating the chocolate ones -lol! It’s a great time of the season, so nice to see you are making it fun and educational. Cute boys!!
Aw, thank you! You are a great Aunt! I’m so glad your boys can still enjoy the chocolate ones.
This is great I am trying to get the hang of printables you do a awesome job.
Thank you!
What a nice idea. I have no experience with advent calendars, but by the looks on your kids’ faces, they look really fun!
Thanks, they had lots of fun. 😊
Great post! The scavenger hunt looks uber fun!
Thank you! 😊
Fun traditions with lots of memories made 🙂
Thanks! I hope they will remember these fun activities!
Great ideas Noelle! I love advent calendars 🙂
Thanks!
We have an advent calendar that hangs on our wall. It is from Disney and each day we put a new “ornament” on the tree. We have had it for years. I love it.
Oh, I love that idea, and we love Disney! ♥️
What a fun idea! I never learned about advent until I was an adult. After getting married and having kids, we used to light the candles in the advent wreath each Sunday with the kids when they were little but never did a calendar. We would also leave baby Jesus out of the Nativity Scene until after dinner on Christmas Eve. They would get to bring the baby to the manger just before bed.
I love the idea of putting baby Jesus out on Christmas Eve!
These sound like a lot of fun! We always did an advent Candle and my kids loved it.
I love the idea of an Advent Candle too!
We made a homemade advent calendar this year but my kids would love the Lego or toy ones!
That sounds fun too!
Fun idea and spin on the advent calendar!
Thanks! They loved it.
Thanks!
We love advent calendars and scavenger hunts in our house! Thanks so much for the freebie!
I’m so glad! Merry Christmas!
Okay this is amazing! I already bought some calendars but I will definitely be doing this in addition!
Great! I hope you all have fun!
I love scavenger hunts! What a great idea!
My kids loved doing advent calendars when they were young AND we often created scavenger hunts. But I never combined the two activities. Great idea!
What a fun way to enjoy the holidays with Littles!!! I love this!
Thanks!
What an amazing idea for kids on Christmas! I imagine it would be great for families with young kids getting together as well!
So true! It would be extra fun with cousins or friends.