Activity advent calendar ideas: 24 days that fit a real December
· By Mitja Ahlin, founder
An activity advent calendar swaps the chocolate for something to do: open today's door, and today you make paper snowflakes. It's a lovely idea that tends to fall apart around December 9th, because a Tuesday with homework and a late dinner can't take a gingerbread house.
The fix is to match the activity to the day. In 2026, December 1st is a Tuesday, which gives you 18 weekdays and 6 weekend days before Christmas Eve. Most of the doors should be small. The list below is built the same way: 12 ideas that take ten minutes, 6 for an evening, and 6 for a weekend day.
12 ten-minute ideas for school nights
- Write the letter to Santa
- Make paper snowflakes for one window
- Read a Christmas book in bed with the big light off and a flashlight on
- Hot chocolate on the doorstep after dark
- Everyone hangs one decoration and says where it came from
- Call a grandparent and sing them one carol, badly
- Make a paper chain with a link for every day left
- Draw a Christmas card for someone who won't expect one
- Count the lit-up windows on the way home
- Leave a note and a treat for the delivery driver
- Ten minutes of dancing to the worst Christmas song you can find
- Put food out for the birds tonight, and check who came in the morning
6 ideas for an evening
For Fridays, and the odd weeknight that turns out quieter than expected.
- Christmas film night, with dinner on a blanket on the living room floor
- Bake one batch of cookies and give half of them away
- A walk after dinner to the best-lit street nearby, with something warm in a flask
- Wrap presents for each other with your eyes closed
- Board games by candlelight
- Decorate a box of shop-bought gingerbread - all the fun, none of the baking
6 ideas for a weekend day
- A Christmas market, with a budget of one treat each
- Choose the tree together, or a branch if a whole tree is too much
- A winter walk to somewhere with soup at the end
- A morning at the ice rink - holding on to the wall counts
- Take a box of toys or food to a donation drop-off, then get yourselves something nice on the way home
- A day with nothing on at all, saved for the last weekend before Christmas
How to set one up without it turning into homework
- Keep two piles, not 24 fixed doors. Small ideas in one, big ones in the other. Each morning, take from the pile that fits the day.
- Have a swap rule. If today's idea doesn't fit, swap it, no discussion. A skipped day isn't a failure.
- Let the kids write a few. Theirs will be stranger, and they'll be the ones everyone remembers.
- Keep anything that needs tickets out of the doors. Light trails, shows and Santa visits sell out, so they need a date now, not on the morning. There's a list of those in the Christmas bucket list.
For more small ideas that work on any evening, see family fun ideas that don't need a screen and family activity ideas.
