Advent Ideas for Toddlers

 Twenty Five Ways to Celebrate Advent
~*~ Toddler Style ~*~

 

What better way could you celebrate Christmas than to do it all month long?! Here are twenty-five ideas that we're using in our home this December to help focus on what the season's all about. These ideas can be done in any order (unless otherwise specified or sequential). I put an astric (*) next to anything that I still need supplies for so that I can prepare ahead of time. Have fun with it, and remember to keep things simple so that you can make the activities intentional.

• DAY ONE: Finish decorating for Christmas, start the Advent Calendar (we use a wooden train where each day, there is a box to open which will give instructions for that day’s Advent. If you don't already have something like that, create your own with a clothesline and 25 socks, stockings, or mittens!)
• Scavenger Hunt to find a Christmas book 
• Craft trees out of newspapers, pompoms, and glitter glue 
• Sing and dance to Christmas Carols! 
• Make Applesauce Ornaments*  
• Go shopping for an AngelTree child 
• Watch a Christmas Movie 
• String popcorn and cranberries* 
• Visit the Library and read some Christmas books! 
• Tell the story of the Wisemen visiting Jesus, and receive/give one gift 
• Review the story of the Wisemen visiting Jesus, and receive/give one gift 
• Have the Children tell YOU the story of the Wisemen visitng Jesus, and receive/give one gift (wooden nativity set)
• Bake and decorate cookies* 
• Give some cookies away 
• Build a "stable" (tent out of blankets and chairs, or whatever strikes your fancy!) and eat lunch with your stuffed animals in it. 
• Decorate a Gingerbread house or tree*
• Write a letter to Santa 
• Make a Happy Birthday card for Jesus 
• Make Cupcakes and a special dinner to celebrate Jesus' birth (children choose menu)* 
• After dark, drive around to see the Christmas lights (wearing jammies, of course)
• Make and hang bird feeders made with peanut butter and birdseed on pinecones 
• Visit Santa 
• Make a snowman (no snow? Popcorn balls or craft supplies!) 
• CHRISTMAS EVE! Wrap gifts for others, receive special jammies to wear, tell the Nativity story before bed
• CHRISTMAS DAY! Traditions + finding Jesus in the manger of the nativity set