DIY Holiday Advent Calendars

by Ellen Luckett Baker


Looking for ways to keep the kids entertained next week? Create a countdown calendar for the holidays. As a child, our family had an advent calendar each December to count down the days until Christmas. You can read more about the history and religious significance of advent calendars here. For this project, I’ve created two printable calendars that you can customize to reflect your family’s own celebration of the holidays. One calendar is a gingerbread house with 24 days to count down until Christmas and the other calendar is a winter village with eight window openings to celebrate the days of Hanukkah.

Just print out the calendar pages on card stock, let the kids make drawings for each day and color the front piece, cut out the windows with a craft knife and put it together to create a calendar with windows to be opened each day, revealing a new drawing.

Create your own family tradition by sharing simple ways that you can celebrate each day with your family in a special way by writing down a kind deed or an activity for that day. The kids colored this calendar, but I think I’ll also create an activity version with cookie baking, gift-buying for needy families, parties, and craft activities. We’ll have an activity for each day with some that are simple like “give hugs”. Whatever the holidays mean to you, share your traditions and start new ones with your children this season.

To get started, click on a calendar image below.

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