24 Advent Activity Ideas for Kids – Cosy, Cheap and Easy
2026-10-31 · Pawsome Nordic
An advent calendar doesn't have to mean 24 pieces of chocolate or 24 small plastic toys. An activity advent calendar gives your child one small thing to do together each day – and most of the best ideas cost nothing at all.
Below are 24 ideas you can mix and match. In Sweden, Advent starts on the first Sunday of Advent (29 November in 2026), but most families simply count 1–24 December.
Before you start: three tips that make it work
- Plan around your calendar, not the other way round. Put the bigger activities (baking, a forest walk) on weekends and the 5-minute ones on busy weekdays.
- Write the activity on a card, not a promise. If a day goes wrong, swap the card with another day. Nobody needs to know.
- Keep the bar low. The point is a small moment together every day – not a perfect Pinterest December.
Cosy at-home ideas
- Build a blanket fort and read a winter story inside it.
- Make paper snowflakes and tape them to the windows.
- Have a pyjama breakfast with candles on the table.
- Draw a Christmas card for a grandparent, neighbour or teacher.
- Make a "thank you" list together: five things that made this year good.
- Play a family board game or picture bingo after dinner.
- Have a living-room dance party to three favourite songs.
- Watch a Christmas film with homemade popcorn.
In the kitchen
- Bake gingerbread (pepparkakor) and decorate them with icing.
- Make hot chocolate with a "topping bar" of whatever is in the cupboard.
- Bake lussekatter together for Lucia on 13 December.
- Make a simple bird feeder from oats, fat and a pine cone.
Outside (dress warm!)
- Go on a torch walk after dark and count Christmas stars in windows.
- Do a winter scavenger hunt: a pine cone, a red berry, something round, an icicle.
- Build a snowman – or, with no snow, a "stick man" from branches.
- Take a thermos of warm drink to the forest or park.
- Visit a Christmas market or see the lights in town.
Kindness days
- Choose a toy to give away to someone who needs it.
- Leave a kind note on a neighbour's door.
- Help an adult with a "grown-up job" – wrapping, cleaning, cooking.
- Call or video-call a relative who lives far away.
The last days before Christmas
- Make gift tags and wrap presents together.
- Decorate the tree (or one branch in a vase) and tell a story about each ornament.
- Christmas Eve: read a story by candlelight and put out a treat for tomten.
How to turn the ideas into a calendar
The simplest version is 24 envelopes with a card inside each. Hang them on a string with clothes pegs, or put them in a box and let your child pull one out each morning. Younger kids love seeing the "used" cards collected on the wall – it makes the countdown visible.
Want it ready-made? Our Advent Activity Calendar for Kids is a printable set of 24 activity cards in English and Swedish, with blank cards so you can add your own family traditions.
