A friend texted me this week to ask about candy-free Advent calendar options and it got me thinking… I have some ideas!
We’ve tried to limit our children’s candy consumption over the years- so much so that we would collect all their holiday candy from October to December and give them just one piece after lunch and dinner. The candy lasted forever that way!
Through the years, we’ve also considered other options than candy for Easter eggs, Christmas stockings, and Valentine’s hearts. With these experiences in mind, I answered the text with ideas for Advent calendars. Hopefully, they will help you bring the beauty of advent to your home, without all the sugar.
Christmas Book Tree
When my kids were very young and still loved a picture book with Mom, I collected 25 Christmas books and wrapped them each year to place under the Christmas tree in our living room. Each evening, we’d gather near the tree, one of the kids would select a book and unwrap it, and then we’d read it together. The boys eventually outgrew this tradition, but I still bring the books out every year and we’ll read them if we’re so inclined.
Christmas Envelopes
An idea I’ve seen online repeatedly is a string hung across a doorway or from the ceiling with envelopes clipped. The envelopes should be numbered 1 through 25 and can have anything in them. They could have a recipe in them if you’re into baking or cooking as a family. They could have songs to sing together if you’re into Christmas carols. If you’d like to focus on scripture, you can print the scriptures and put them in envelopes with stickers or cutouts to put on paper for a Christmas scene by Christmas Day. These envelopes could hold anything you want your little ones to read: affirmations, Bible promises, names of God, and words from you to create a letter at the end of the 25 days, the sky is the limit.
If you don’t want to come up with something on your own, there are a lot of ideas online as well. Here are some that I like:
- https://www.thinkingkidsblog.org/printable-advent-calendar-kids-advent-readings/
- https://avirtuouswoman.org/christmas-advent-calendars-to-print/
- https://www.thehappyhousie.com/free-printable-activity-based-advent-calendar/
- https://www.thehandmadehome.net/free-printable-advent-calendar/
If you still receive Christmas cards from loved ones, you can also use the string to display the cards!
Trinkets and Things
Nowadays there are many places you can buy little trinkets for your kiddos. Dollar Tree is in my town, but there are other great options. Years ago when I was part of the MOPS program, we made an Advent calendar by hot-gluing little flannel pockets onto a Christmas-tree-shaped stretch of burlap. We were invited to find little pieces of nature to coincide with the Advent story to place in each pocket. Another idea raised at our meeting was to grab little trinkets from our household that the children would recognize. An idea I like personally is to make the pockets big enough for ornaments from our tree that hold a lot of meaning to us. You could put anything you’d like in the pockets, so long as they bring meaning to your advent as a family.
Many Parts but One Body
Instead of giving your children something individually each day of Advent, you could have them open something each day that creates something in the end–together. Some ideas could include puzzle pieces (you’d have to put the whole puzzle together first, so your children have pieces that go together each day. Then, by Christmas, they have a puzzle to complete together!
Another great idea I thought of when considering girls (I only have boys), is putting together a set of stationary each day of Advent. For instance, each day could reveal a rubber stamp, a pen, sticker pages, carefully selected cards, envelopes, and more. The last day could be a box to organize it all in and you could start teaching your kids the joy of letter-writing and cardmaking!
If you’re looking for something else to do together as a family, a baking set is a great option: a rolling pen, mixing bowl, aprons, spoons, etc. each day, and the last day could be a favorite sugar cookie recipe.
Building a Scrapbook
I print off and laminate a photo of my kids and stick it in their stocking each year. On one side is my favorite picture of him, and on the other is my favorite selfie with him. Then I include a letter each year too.
Perhaps this tradition has led me to a scrapbook idea for Advent. Maybe you’d like to print 20-25 photos of your family, gather stickers and stamps from the scrapbooking aisle at your local department store, or even use clippings of wrapping paper. On the last day (Christmas) you could reveal a Christmas scrapbook. If you continue this Advent tradition every year, you could end up with a family scrapbook that everyone helps put together every Christmas. Consider what a treasure it could be–how excited the children will be to see which photos are selected/revealed each day!
I’m excited about the scrapbook idea and my kids are already in their teens (well, 2 out of the 3, anyway).
What ideas do you have for Advent calendars in your home? Share them with us on Facebook.
Daily Advent Readings
In the past, I wrote stories each day of Advent and published them on OUTLOOK. A few years ago I took those stories and published them into a book. If you’re interested in bringing the Christmas story to life in a new way, you can purchase the book here or download it immediately on Kindle.
