Free Printable Advent Calendar Cards
Advent Calendar Ideas + Printable
Tomorrow is December 1st and I don’t know about y’all but my kids love counting down the days until Christmas. Every year we do an advent calendar and I reuse many of the same cards each time. So I wanted to share this free printable I made a few years ago with you! You can print and use these cards for your own family’s advent. If tomorrow seems too soon, you can always start on the 12th!
Personally, I try to keep costs very low and look for free or easy things to do. The Christmas holiday can be expensive without adding in buying something new for the advent calendar every day. We’ve tried a couple of cheap options at Five Below, but the kids weren’t all that impressed with the options and I don’t blame them.
An advent calendar is great for little kids that know the holiday is near but will ask you every day if today is Christmas!
Our First Advent Calendar
We made our first advent calendar out of small gift boxes (I bought them on Amazon) arranged on the wall in the shape of a Christmas tree. We decorated each box lid and hung them on the wall with command strips. Dexi really enjoyed helping decorate the boxes and we had a lot of fun coming up with the designs. We just used the craft materials we already had for this.That year I bought a set of holiday themed earrings to fill a few boxes and the rest were all activities. Here’s a link to the earrings on Amazon. (I’m not getting paid for any of this, just sharing!)
Our Second Advent Calendar
Some of the boxes didn’t make it to the next Christmas so we got one of the carboard advent calendar boxes from Hobby Lobby and decorated it simply with mod podge.
Our Third Advent Calendar
The other one served us fine, but it was rather flimsy and wasn’t made for long term. So that led us to this one that I bought on Amazon. The boxes are rather small, but it worked for the notes and a couple of small pieces of candy. What really sold me was that the top could be changed out.
Advent Calendar Ideas
We try not to make the holiday all about getting presents. For us, it’s more about spending time together. Check out the list of FREE (or cheap) advent calendar ideas I created.
- Decorating the Christmas Tree
- Decorating House or Your Room
- Christmas Movies
- Hot Cocoa / Apple Cider / Eggnog
- Making Christmas Cookies
- Make Christmas Cookies & Deliver them to Neighbors
- Making Ornaments
- Writing a Letter to Santa
- Visiting Santa at Cabela’s
- Reading Christmas Books
- Go to a Tree Lighting
- Make Paper Snowflakes
- Make and Send Christmas Cards
- Make Homemade Gifts
- Holiday Crafts
- Library Events*
- Library Books*
- Drive around and look at Christmas Lights
- Go Ice Skating
- Play and Sing Christmas Carols
- Color a Christmas Picture
- Do a Christmas Puzzle
- Check for free holiday events in your area
- Christmas Karaoke Dance Party
- Acts of Kindness
- Use fake snow as a sensory activity
- Make playdough snowmen
- Sidewalk Chalk Christmas Messages
- Build a gingerbread house
- Make a snack for Santa or open a small gift
These aren’t in any specific order and the best part is you can make your own or switch things up as needed. If you don’t have enough time some days that’s ok.
*Check your local library for what free events they offer. Instead of buying a bunch of new holiday books, you can check some out to use at home. This is a great free option to consider.