I love advent calendars so much. I love that it gives us a little something to do every single day during December, as we lead up to Christmas.
In our house, we have three advent calendars. (If you haven’t gotten an advent calendar yet, check out our list of some of the best ones this year.) Several years ago my mom bought advent calendars for the kids and has made it her tradition to fill them every year. What I love is that the kids LOVE these calendars but they are so simple! We’ve compiled a list of our favorite advent calendar fillers to give you ideas to keep you going all month long!
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Candy Advent Calendar Fillers
This is super easy and obvious. You can put a small candy behind each door and call it a day. Go beyond Hershey kisses to adorable Christmas lollipops, holiday pop rocks, and hot chocolate pops.
Ornaments for Advent Calendar Fillers
My mom gave the kids a small eighteen-inch tree and puts a tiny ornament in each day of their calendar. The ornaments get recycled every year and yet they’re still thrilled to add them to their tree.
Target carries a ton of small trees that would be great for this. We love this sweet tabletop tree and mini-tree skirt!
Books for Advent Calendars
Or rather, the promise of reading a book. Our stack of holiday books grows every year and reading a book every night is one of our favorite traditions. You could wrap each book for a nightly surprise, or simply put them all in a basket and have everyone choose their favorites.
At some point during the month, surprise everyone with a new book or a gift card to go choose a new one as a family.
Activities for Advent Calendars
This could be the most challenging item on the list, but it’s not meant to be. We take a look at our calendar of events for the month of December and include activities like our annual visit to the Christmas train, their night at Grandma and Grandpa’s while we have our holiday party, and even a surprise trip to Disneyland to fill their calendars.
If you’re doing an activity each day, make things easy on yourself. In addition to big activities, include things like “drink hot chocolate,” “eat candy canes,” “watch a Christmas movie,” and “read a Christmas book.”
This adorable Etsy shop has done the work for you! Simply download and print these DIY Advent Calendar fillers!
Give Back
We love this idea for a reverse advent calendar and this one for random acts of kindness. You could ask your kids to collect items from the pantry to donate or take a look at their toys for those that can be passed along. Depending on the ages you’re dealing with you could make plans to volunteer,
Advent Calendar Idea – Money!
I’m talking coins here, not stacks of cash, but you do you. A few coins each day with a big payoff at the end would be fun!
Gift Cards
Think things like iTunes, Starbucks, ice cream, fast food, even gas cards for older kids would be a hit.
Holiday Treats
Think about the things that you usually buy during the holidays – hot chocolate, candy canes, peppermint Chapstick (perhaps that last one is just me) and drop them into your advent calendar.
As an added bonus these are consumable and not adding to the pile of stuff that accumulates during the holidays. Many of the items linked below can be divided up for multiple days or among multiple kids!
If you haven’t picked up an advent calendar (or three if you’re us) we love this list of DIY Advent Calendars. We would love to hear how you countdown to Christmas!
Share your favorite advent calendar traditions with us in the comments.
Related: Our Podcast Episode ALL ABOUT Advent Calendars!
We’re Talking All Things Advent on the Podcast
Did you catch our Advent calendar podcast episode? Tons of Christmas content, highs and lows of the season, plus it’s like hanging out with friends. Give our highly-rated podcast a listen today! You won’t be sorry. Available on all platforms where you listen to podcasts.
Today I picked up a variety of bagged candies at Target for our advent calendar. 5 kidsX24 days=120 pieces! A friend shared a google doc with me that has verses from the Gospels that tell the Christmas story, so the kids who can read take turn reading those in the mornings, while the rest listen and eat their candy. In our second calendar, we have a Little People baby Jesus who gets moved from day to day. This year, I picked up a third one— the M&D magnetic advent calendar. And 4 of my kids are getting Lego ones for their birthdays!