17 Advent Traditions and Activities for Kids & Families
The Meaning of Christmas
What comes to mind when you think about the Christmas season? Is it the joyful music, presents around the tree, festive family gatherings, cookie decorating, or another sweet tradition? I have so many special memories from Christmastime, as I’m sure you do, too! Maybe you’re bringing some of the traditions you grew up with into your home today, but you might also be looking for your own traditions to start.
In this article, I’m giving you 17 Advent traditions and activities that focus on connection, family, and faith so you and your loved ones can discover the true meaning of Christmas together! We’ll get to those ideas soon, but first, let’s talk about a tradition the Christian church has observed for centuries: Advent.
While holiday foods, festivities, and lights can feel nostalgic and even magical, Advent can help us focus on the true magic of the Christmas season: a tiny King born in a lowly manger, who came to save the world. A real Christmas miracle!
What Is Advent & Why Is it Important?
Advent starts the liturgical Church calendar. It starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, falling at the end of November or beginning of December. Advent continues for four weeks leading up to Christmas. During this time, we prepare our hearts and minds for Jesus being born, our much-needed King. It’s a time of great anticipation and waiting as we honor Jesus’ birth. In fact, the word Advent itself means coming or arrival! We are literally preparing our hearts and waiting in anticipation for the coming of Jesus. Can you think of anything better to prepare for?
During a time of year where Black Friday ads litter your Instagram and gifts are flying off of the shelves at incredible rates, Advent comes at the exact time we may need it most. Not because of the tradition itself, but because of what it represents. When around us we see the temporary, material things of the holiday season being celebrated, we can remain in a posture of faith, keeping our eyes focused on the King of kings. Advent keeps our hearts and minds set on what really matters: our world getting the Savior it’s longed for in the birth of Jesus and in His eventual second coming! Observing Advent during the four weeks leading up to Christmas helps us focus on the true meaning of the holiday.
Although Christians celebrate Advent in many different ways, the focus for all surrounds around the hope and expectancy of our coming Savior. Some popular Christian traditions involve lighting an advent wreath for each week leading up to Christmas, marking off Advent calendars (or eating ones with chocolate!), specific scripture readings, family devotionals, and singing hymns.
Many Advent traditions focus on a different theme each of the four weeks, and those themes are commonly hope, peace, joy, and love. It’s these very themes that are the focus of my 17 Advent traditions and activities for you and your family!
17 Advent Activities for Families
As a best-selling children’s book author and general editor of the Go Bible For Kids, I’m passionate about helping families bring fun and faith into the everyday. This is why I created this list—to keep your family focused on Jesus during the holiday season with traditions that can stand the test of time!
Good, Old-Fashioned Advent Calendar. Advent calendars are an amazing way to instill the meaning of Christmas, because they can be done everyday to reinforce the peace, joy, love, and hope of the season. And bonus—these calendars come in all kinds! Some are built upon opening up acts of kindness you can do that day, while others focus on words that describe Jesus. Whichever calendar you choose, you can unlock pieces of the true meaning of the season with each opening! And let’s be honest—if you add a little chocolate treat behind a small door or something that the kids can open, it’s usually an even bigger hit. 😉
Picnic by the Christmas tree. Here in Minnesota, outdoor picnics aren’t a fun option during the winter months—that is unless you enjoy sitting in -10 degree wind chills and feet of snow. But the cold is a great excuse to simply bring the picnic indoors! As you eat and enjoy the twinkling lights of the tree, you can also talk about Jesus bringing light into the darkness. Christmas Day is actually one of the darkest days of the year here in the US when it comes to actual sunlight, and it’s pretty cool how our Christmas tree and all the lights can remind us about the Light of the World!
My Best-Selling Devotional, Discovering Christmas! 🎄 Discovering Christmas is a 25-Day Advent devotional with activities for kids. This interactive retelling of God’s big story invites families to focus on the most special reason we celebrate Christmas—the birth of our Savior. Each day includes a devotion, scripture, conversation prompts, a short prayer, and a simple activity idea. Some of the activities listed here are variations of ideas in the devotional. My prayer is that Discovering Christmas helps your family stay connected with each other throughout the holiday season as you experience the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus.
Advent Wreaths. Beautiful Advent wreaths aren’t only for churches, so go ahead and bring the Advent wreath tradition into your own home! This can be a simple wreath you purchase from the store, one you have in your basement, or even better—have your kids make a homemade wreath! Each week on Sunday during Advent, one child can place a candle on the wreath symbolizing the theme for the week. You can even choose to decorate pine cones each week rather than add/light candles.
Volunteer as a Family. ‘Tis the season of giving, so consider giving some of your time to others in need. Maybe you could all volunteer for the Salvation Army and ring a bell outside a shop while you wish people a Merry Christmas. Or consider packing gift boxes for kids around the world through Operation Christmas Child. Time spent volunteering not only strengthens your family bond, but it’s also a great way to show your children what it means to be God’s hands and feet. Children learn by doing, and volunteering together is a great way to practice generosity and caring for the needs of others just like Jesus does.
Ornaments on the Tree. Opening an Advent ornament and putting it on the tree is a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season. Some Advent ornament sets come with stories to read about Jesus, while others are simply ornaments with names on them about Jesus. Each day, one child can open an ornament and find his or her special spot on the tree to place it!
Daily Bible Readings. Enjoy each day of Advent by reading one small portion of Jesus’ birth story from the Bible. The Go Bible For Kids is a fantastic Bible for children ages 7-12 to learn about God’s Word and the story of Christ. It’s filled with fun, engaging content to help kids understand scripture in a way that makes sense to them. Each day you can read a few verses from Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 to help you focus on the true story of Jesus that’s behind the beauty of this holiday season.
Christmas Countdown Prayer Chains. If you have a bunch of crafters at home (or even if you don’t), consider creating a prayer chain. Depending on your kids’ ages, you can just get them started and then watch how those little hands can work! Kids can write a praise or prayer on each chain, and then you hook them together. Each day, take down a chain and read the prayer on it to prepare your hearts to live out the day. Prayers can include needs for your family or someone else you know, prayers for the world, or praises to thank God for. To bring in the Advent theme even more, create 7 prayers for each of the 4 weeks of Advent themes, centering them around hope, peace, joy, and love.
Christmas Books! We love reading over here, and reading to kids—or having kids read to you once they are able—have so many wonderful benefits. Choose four Christmas books that center around hope, peace, joy, and love, or the birth of Jesus. Consider reading one each Sunday of Advent before church or at bedtime. Leave the conversation open at the end of the reading to discuss the story together or invite your kids ask questions about the book.
Make Someone a Christmas Card. Who doesn’t love to receive a thoughtful card in the mail? And we’re not talking about your traditional Christmas cards with a smiling family (of course, those are cute, too!). Rather, consider handwriting a personal card to a family member or friend who is in need of one. In the card, kids could write prayers, loving messages, or a simple Christmas note wishing them a season full of joy. Writing (or drawing) personal cards is such a heartfelt way to show someone you care during the Christmas season and all seasons!
My FREE Farm Friends Devotional Set. Kids can read these devotions daily during the Advent season so they can understand how God made them to be caring, wise, generous, peaceful, humble, thankful, and self-controlled. As a family, you can chat about how these qualities relate back to Advent, as well as enjoy the barnyard animals—some of which might have been present at the manger!
Hot Cocoa & Candy Canes. Make some hot cocoa and use candy canes as stir sticks. As you sip, read about the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 who were visited by a group of angels on that special night of Jesus’ birth. You can talk about how candy canes are often bent into the shape of a shepherds crook to represent the celebration of Jesus’ birth. And then what happens if you flip those candy canes upside down? They make the shape of a “J” for Jesus!
Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Children have the best ideas. It’s so fun to see what’s going on in their little minds! Hand this activity entirely over to the kids and ask them to come up with ways they can “celebrate” or “carry out” each of the themes for the week. Enjoy seeing the craft ideas, service projects, or simple acts of kindness they can come up with surrounding each theme!
Doorstep Deliveries. Who says Door Dash is the only one who can do doorstep deliveries these days?! Make some Christmas cookies or put together a thoughtful gift to leave at a neighbor’s doorstep. If you know someone who could use some extra love this holiday season, this is a great way to show them support while also sharing the love of Jesus! Ring the doorbell and then stay to chat, or let kids enjoy a little “ring and run” action—knowing that the neighbor will get a fun surprise when they open the door.
Wrap and Pray. Wrap Christmas presents and pray for the people who will be receiving them. As you wrap, you can also talk about the greatest gift ever—Jesus! God sent Jesus to earth as a gift to the entire world. Jesus makes it possible for us to be close to God now and forever. As you pray for people, you can ask God to help them know and love Jesus too because He is the best gift that anyone could ever have.
Caroling Together. Is there a favorite holiday hymn your family loves to sing? Spread the joy of Christmas by caroling throughout your neighborhood. Ask your friends and neighbors to join in on the Christmas tradition! Another option: call a faraway family member for some virtual caroling and spread the joy of the holiday season across city, state, or even county lines!
Set Up a Nativity Scene. Setting up a Nativity can be a wonderful Christmas tradition! Each character you set out has a story, and when you set up a Nativity scene together, it offers the opportunity for your kids to ask questions about the birth of Jesus. You can even act out your very own life-size Nativity story after you’re done setting up your scene. Just build a stable with blankets and chairs, grab some stuffies for the animals, and use a laundry basket for the manger!
Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
These activities are meant to bring you and your family closer to Jesus together, without adding to the commercial hustle of the holiday. The parties, presents, and decorations can all be exciting, but may we not let those things cause us to forget about what matters most.
Whether you observe Advent each year or you’re new to practicing this tradition, I hope you found something here that can help you and your family keep the focus on Christ this Christmas! Learning how we can experience the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus during the Advent season and all seasons is time well spent.
If you’re interested in other ways you can bring faith into your home throughout other times of the year, check out my article, 10 Ways to Cultivate Faith at Home!
As we prepare our hearts to receive our Savior, the King of all kings, may we experience the true miracle and wonder of this holiday season.
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