We love celebrating Advent at our house, and I’m excited to share some of our favorite Advent activities for kids!
The Christmas season gets filled up with lots of busy all too easily. The parties and presents and decorations can all be great, but let’s not let those things cause us to forget about what matters the most. Advent is a time of waiting as we prepare to celebrate our Savior, Jesus! His birth—the greatest gift ever—is what this season is really about.
Whether you love using an Advent calendar in your countdown to Christmas or if this is your first time diving into embracing Advent, this is for you. These fun activities can help you and your family keep the focus on Christ this Christmas!
Advent Activity #1
Lay out a blanket and have a picnic dinner in front of the Christmas tree as you read Isaiah 9:2, 6-7.
We love eating outside in the summer! Here in Minnesota, outdoor picnics just aren’t an option during the winter months (unless you enjoy sitting in -10 degree wind chills and feet of snow…I don’t!).
But because we enjoy our picnics, we will occasionally bring the picnic indoors! Our little shih tzu mix pup loves this too because all the delicacies are right at his level. And just a friendly reminder to keep the meals simple and unlikely to cause too big of a mess if spilled on the carpet or smeared on the walls. Not that I speak from experience. ;)
As you eat and enjoy the twinkling lights of the tree, you can also talk about Jesus bring light into our dark world! Christmas Day is actually one of the darkest days of the year here in the US in terms of actual sunlight, and it’s pretty cool how our Christmas tree and all the lights can remind us about the Light of the World!
Advent Activity #2
Act out the Nativity story. You could make a blanket fort for the stable and find other props for your performance! We like to grab a bunch of stuffed animals and place them all around the manger. And now that all of our kids are a bit too big to play “baby Jesus,” we use one of our many baby dolls for the baby king.
Our kiddos also absolutely love going around the house and knocking on doors while I act out different “inn keepers.” We take a lot of creative freedom as we play and reenact this beautiful story.
In fact, did you know that the “inn keeper” isn’t even in the Bible as part of the Christmas story? It’s true!
Oh, and did you know that the wise men didn’t actually visit Jesus on the night of His birth? It probably took them many months to travel from their home in the east to get to Jesus.
Honestly, it used to bother me that these inaccurate details (among others) were included in so many retellings of the Christmas story and essentially presented as facts. But it doesn’t bug me quite as much as it used to. And while I’m committed to biblical accuracy in the resources I create, I absolutely think there’s a place for imaginative Bible retellings! (I’ve even written a few in recent years.)
Anyway, with all of that…let’s move on to another activity idea!
Advent Activity #3
Set up a simple hot cocoa bar 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!
If you want to go even further into some of the symbolization we can see in a candy cane, you could talk about how the color white in the candy cane represents Jesus purity—Jesus was perfect and never sinned. The red represents Jesus’ love and the blood He shed on the cross when He took the punishment for our sins!
Advent Activity #4
Wrap Christmas presents and pray for the people who will be receiving them.
As you wrap, you can also talk about how giving gifts is a fun tradition we do and how exciting it can be to get gifts too! Ask your kids what their favorite gift that they’ve ever received is—and you can ask them what gift they have been the most excited to give someone. The talk about the greatest gift ever…Jesus! God sent Jesus to earth as a gift to the 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 because He is the best gift that anyone could ever have.
Advent Activity #5
Tell the real Christmas story about Jesus' birth to someone today! Hearing a young child tell others about the birth of our Savior can be one of the sweetest things.
I have a precious memory from when our oldest daughter was about three. She opened up my Bible (I think it was upside down) and as she turned the pages, she began sharing the story of Jesus coming to the world. It was amazing how much she had absorbed, and it was also super cute to hear some of the details she shared that weren’t exactly how the traditional story goes.
See if your kids are willing to tell you or maybe a grandparent the story of Jesus’ birth. It can help them grow in confidence in their ability to tell others about Jesus—and it’s just SO STINKIN’ CUTE.
So, there you go!
If you like these Advent activity ideas, I think you’ll also enjoy a fun (and free!) resource I created. It has printable Advent activities that you could put into your Advent calendar each day or simply place them around the house for kids to find each morning. Do all 27 of the activities or just pick out a handful that you like—it’s totally up to you.
No matter what we do during our Christmas countdown, may we all remember that Jesus is the real reason for this special season.
Enter your info below to get access to my Fun Kids Advent Activities resource—and lots of other free stuff too!
