When I was a kid, I absolutely loved advent in December!
My mom was such a superstar and always made the countdown special with her unique advent ideas. She had a little shoebox decorated with Christmas colours that she would put in front of me and my brother every morning. Each day there would be a fun little gift in there for us to open.
It was never anything fancy- a small candy, a pencil or an eraser, or a craft for us to do that day.
Regardless of how flashy the gift was, though, I always looked forward to opening that box to a surprise each day.
When I went off to university, she sent the gifts with me so I’d have a little message or gift from her every day until I saw her in person on Christmas. It was always a special tradition that I think of fondly, and I hope someday that I can continue the tradition with my own kids.
Today, I wanted to share with you a few different ways that you can make advent special, depending on what you want to focus on for Christmas.
Some of these ideas will require money but some can be done without any money at all, so it’s good for any budget.
Some will require more time for preparation while others can be done quickly.
I hope that you will be able to find some unique advent ideas that inspire you to try some yourself!
Related Post: Things To Do On Christmas Day Your Family Will Love!
The Advent Mystery Box
Cost: Requires money, but can easily fit any budget
Time: Requires time to buy the items and (if you want) wrap them
Who it’s Good For: Families with young kids or couples on a budget
How it Works: This is the advent style my mom used when I was little. First, you need a shoebox that can fit small items. Decorate the box if you’d like. Every day, put a new small gift in the box. Hide it somewhere and let the recipient search for the box. Once they find the box, they can open the gift inside and use it right away.
Some affordable gift ideas include:
- Christmas accessories like scrunchies, clips, and dollar store bracelets
- Christmas socks
- Office items like pens, pencils, erasers
- Dollar store Christmas colouring books
- Small candies
- Ornaments for the tree
The Tea Lover’s Advent Calendar
Cost: Requires one big purchase of a David’s Tea Advent box
Time: Does not need any preparation once it is bought
Who it’s Good For: Friends or small families that like to enjoy a warm drink together
How it Works: This is the most traditional of the advent ideas, but I can’t not mention it. My roommate bought this for me our first year living together and it has been a favourite for me ever since. Instead of an advent calendar that has chocolate, you can buy advent calendars with tea in it. Every day, you open a new flavour of tea and try it with a friend that day. You get to wake up to a fun new flavour to try every day, and you get some quality time with a loved one by enjoying tea together!
The Advent Garland of Letters
Cost: You need some twine, clothespins, and paper, but beyond that it is free!
Time: You need time to write the letters, so it depends on how much you want to write
Who it’s Good For: Couples or Friends who want to show appreciation for each other
How it Works: Basically, you will write an encouraging message on 25 different pieces of paper and hang them on a banner for your partner or friend to open every day. You get to decide what you want on each paper, though. It could be a letter of encouragement, a thing you love about that person, or a daily Christmas joke.
The Family Time Advent
Cost: Depending on the activities you choose, it can be free or very expensive. You have options
Time: This is the most time-consuming advent
Who it’s Good For: Couples and Families who want to spend more quality time with each other and simplify their gift-giving.
How it Works: To prepare your advent calendar, you need to write down things you want to do with your loved ones. Every day, you will pull out a piece of paper that has an activity written on it. That day, everyone will do that activity together. They can be big activities that take a lot of time or something simple. The main point is to use the advent to remind you to spend more time as a family this season.
Here are some advent activities you could have:
- Put up the Christmas tree
- Watch a Christmas movie
- Drink hot beverages together
- Make sugar cookies
- Go sledding
- Sing Christmas songs together
- Drive around looking at Christmas lights
The Scavenger Advent
Cost: Ranges from free to low cost
Time: Time-consuming to prepare, but not as time-consuming to play
Who it’s Good For: People who love scavenger hunts, young and old!
How it Works: To prepare, you will need to think of hiding places in your house and one clue for each hiding place. Then you will need to hide something in that spot. It could be a letter or a small gift, whichever you prefer! Each day, the recipient will read a new clue and go to the hiding spot that fits that clue. Once they discover the spot, they will open the gift or letter that is hidden there.
The Home Decor Advent
Cost: If you already own Christmas Decorations, then this is free! If not, it will cost as much as the decorations cost.
Time: It is time-consuming but replaces the time it would take for you to decorate your house alone for Christmas
Who it’s Good For: People who prefer to decorate for Christmas gradually
How it Works: To prepare for this advent calendar, you need to write down different holiday decorating tasks on pieces of paper. Every day, you will follow the decorating instructions on the piece of paper. Over the course of the month, your house will have more and more decorations. All of the decorating will be complete by Christmas! I like this one because it takes a lot of the stress off of decorating for Christmas. Decorating becomes a fun process that you know will get finished on time rather than something you have to do all in one weekend.
Here are some activity ideas:
- Put up the Christmas tree
- Hang lights on the house outside
- Put ornaments on the tree
- Make the dining room table look Christmasy
- Paint a Christmas picture to put on the fridge
- Put candy canes around the house
- Hang the stockings
- Make a Christmas village display
The Reader’s Advent
Cost: Free! Use your local library
Time: Not much prep time and only about 15 minutes a day during advent
Who it’s Good For: Young kids or Adults who enjoy short stories
How it Works: To get ready for this advent, you will only need to go to the library and get some short books (one for each day of advent). Every day, the recipient will get a new Christmas story to read with the family. I am a huge advocate of this style of advent because it encourages kids to see reading as an exciting treat, which it is! For adults, you can collect some short stories or poems from the internet or from the library, or enjoy some children’s literature yourself! There is something truly great about picture books, so don’t shy away from them simply because of your age!
The Puzzler Advent
Cost: Free
Time: Takes some time to find Christmas puzzles to print, but the puzzles themselves are not very time-consuming
Who it’s Good For: People who enjoy a good brain-teaser
How it Works: To prepare this advent, you simply need to find some printable puzzles to give. Every day, you take out a new puzzle and try to solve it by the end of the day as a fun Christmas challenge!
Here are some resources with good Christmas puzzles:
- Christmas–themed puzzles
- Christmas Crossword
- Printables, crafts, and jigsaws
- Christmas brain teasers
A Devotional Advent
Cost: Free
Time: Very little prep time is needed, and the activity takes 5-10 minutes usually
Who it’s Good For: Christian families looking to focus on the spiritual significance of Christmas
How it Works: Find a Christmas advent devotional that you think everyone will enjoy and you’re pretty much done! Some devotionals come with activities while others are something to read together. If you want to add a little fun to it, you can combine this style of advent with a scavenger hunt.
Here are some resources that have great Christian devotionals for advent:
- Focus on the Family Christmas Advent
- Kid’s Ministry Family Advent
- The Dawning of Indestructible Joy Advent Book
The Crafty Advent
Cost: Low Budget
Time: Very little prep and a flexible time range
Who it’s Good For: Crafty people who like to get creative with art materials
How it Works: This advent is not necessarily one that will have an activity to do every day. To prepare, collect a variety of different Christmas craft items. The fun with this advent is that you don’t need to have a particular craft in mind. Every day, put a new craft item in a box and the recipient will collect a new craft piece every day. Once they have collected a decent amount of craft pieces, they can sit down with all the items and try to create something by using as many items as they can.
Here are some craft items you could include for each day:
- Christmas ribbons
- Red and Green paper
- Sparkles
- Sticks
- Pinecones
- Paint
- String
- Wooden figurines
- Snowflake cutouts
- Cotton balls
- Beads
Conclusion
The wonderful thing about advent is that you can change it to suit your needs. If none of these unique advent ideas appealed to you, that’s okay! You can mix-and-match any of the ideas here to create your very own advent calendar that is decorated and structured exactly as you like it!
Personally, I’m going to be doing a combination of gifts, letters, activities, and puzzles for this year’s advent, with devotionals on Sunday. I plan on doing the more time-consuming activities on weekend advents and faster gifts and letters on busier weekdays.
Before you decide on an advent to try, remember to consider your budget, your time, and who you are engaging with. Be realistic about the amount of time, energy, and money you want to put into the advent activities so that it doesn’t become overwhelming.
The point of advent is to prepare your heart and mind for Christmas, so if it is only stressing you out, then it’s time to simplify your Christmas tradition.
Don’t let other people’s expectations of how to celebrate holidays get in the way of your personal choices during the Christmas season. Enjoy a holiday that is catered to the preferences of you and your loved ones, even if it isn’t the ‘picture-perfect’ Christmas you see on the Hallmark channel.
What about you?
What do you and your family do to make the Christmas season special? Are there any things you don’t do anymore because they were too stressful? Share your thoughts in the comments below- I’d love to hear from you!
Love all these ideas. I’ve actually done the garland one, shoe box and also I did a mobile type one once. I always try to have some gifts as treats, some small gifts that are useful and some crafts or puzzles like items too. Thanks for the inspo!
Cool, a mobile advent is so unique! Thanks for sharing how you’ve done advents in the past 🙂
Such creative ideas! I absolutely love the family time advent — a great and fun way to encourage more time spent with loved ones. Definitely going to try that one.
Thanks for sharing! ✨
I’ve definitely liked using advent as a reminder to spend time with the people I love. Thanks for commenting! 🙂
It is funny as this is the first year I have done a type of Advent calendar for my daughter. She is 23 and this is her first year living on her own. So I wanted to do something special for her. All the gifts I got were from Tuesday Morning and I didn’t have to spend a lot of money! Thanks for the additional great ideas!!
My mom did that for me when I went off to university, and it made me feel so loved; I’m sure your daughter will love it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are such great ideas. I like the idea of the scavenger hunt!
I’m glad you liked the ideas! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Such cute ideas! These put my $2 drug store chocolate one to shame.
Thanks! I definitely like how personal these ones feel 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Wonderful ideas for Christmas celebration. I love the idea of little surprise gifts in the shoe box and the little notes to be written for each other .Thanks for sharing!
I just started doing the notes last year, and I love them! It’s a nice chance to show my appreciation to love ones 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
I had no idea there were so many different ways to do advent. The chocolate advent calendars are pretty boring compared to this great list.
As long as you’re willing to get creative, there are countless options! Thanks for commenting! 🙂
This is my first year doing an advent calendar, and we’ve already forgotten to open it three days in a row…oops. I love the idea of it, but I don’t think we’re dedicated enough!
Haha yah, it’s not ideal for busy schedules! In that case, maybe you could do a weekly advent, instead! Just one every Saturday or something 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience!
Advents have come so far since I was little. My parents had an advent wreath, onto which we would place different handmade characters or items that represented parts of the story of the birth of Jesus. It was so special when I was young, and my mom still has that wreath (even if the pieces are quite worn out at this point now). I loved that then and I love these ideas as well now! It’d be fun to create new advent traditions with my husband!
That is such a lovely tradition that you had as a child! I love the idea of retelling the story of Jesus’ birth with your own crafty creations. It’s a great way to remind us of what the season is all about! Thanks for sharing that great idea! 🙂
Advent is such a special time! My family has been lighting our candles and discussing the theme of the week (hope, love, joy, peace) over a special breakfast each Sunday of advent. We have also made a paper chain and have the chocolate advent calendars.
This is such a lovely idea! I like that you pair each theme over a nice meal together as a family. It is such a nice way to connect with others and also be reminded of the value of this season. Thanks for sharing how you celebrate advent! 🙂