I love making this simple advent calendar for my kids every year. It doesn’t take long to make and you can just make it with whatever you have on hand, or spruce it up with a couple extras. I like to keep it simple. Rather than doing candy or gifts every day, I set up little activities that the kids and I can do together.
I love that it cultivates the hope and expectation of the birth of Jesus on Christmas. The kids are always so excited to open each little card and see what the day will bring. There are hundreds of things you could choose to do but I’ll just share some of our favorites with you.
If December has already begun, I think it’s never too late to start. You don’t have to do something every day of the month! Pick one or two or there weeks leading up to Christmas. Doing something is better than nothing and your kids will love it!

To make this advent calendar, I used a copper pipe as the base of it. You can find these at any hardware store in the plumbing section. Alternatively, you could use a branch you find outside, a wooden dowel or something similar.
I used craft paper and just cut it into long rectangles, then folded then in half and wrote the numbers on the outside. Then I wrote the activity inside, taped it shut and punched a whole in the tips.
Then, I strung string at different lengths and hung them from the copper pipe.
I decorated the pipe with some foraged cedar and eucalyptus from the local grocery store, using floral wire to hold it in place.
To add a little bit more to it, I strung some wooden beads I found at Joann’s.

Here are some things I love to incorporate into our month:

• Make a dried orange, popcorn and cranberry garland
• Cut out snowflakes from coffee filters
• Make clove oranges
• Bake an orange cake
• Make hot cocoa and take a drive as a family to look at Christmas lights
• Make a simmer pot
• Make gingerbread star cookies
• Schedule a day where grandparents can take the kids and do something Christmassy with them
• Go shopping for daddy
• Make homemade Christmas gummies
• Roll beeswax candles
• Dip beeswax candles
• Watch a Christmas movie while we have a picnic dinner in the living room
• Take a drive to Yosemite and take a hike in the snow (drive somewhere special in your area for a hike)
• Make a leaf crown
• Go see a Christmas play (our kids are in one at our church this year)
• Make bath bombs as gifts
• Hot cocoa charcuterie board
• Gingerbread houses
• Make sugar cookies and decorate them
• Make and deliver Christmas cards to the neighbors (throw in some cookies too!)
• Make Wassail
• Make homemade ornaments
• Learn how other countries celebrate Christmas
• Make Muddy Buddies
• Watch the annual Warren Miller ski movie (this is a must for my husband)
• Make cinnamon heart ornaments
• Go to a Las Posadas celebration
• Write your own Christmas poem
• Make homemade bread
• Find a way to serve others less fortunate (we always send shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child and help serve a Christmas dinner to our community)
• Make a special Christmas meal