Family Advent Calendar ideas to build the excitement

Choose your Advent calendar

There are loads of pre-filled Advent calendars out there, but if you want to make things a bit more personal, you’ve got options! Some of our faves are:

Reusable Advent calendars

These are usually made from wood or plastic, with handy doors or drawers that you can fill with small treats of your choosing. You could pop sweets in there, homemade bakes, toiletries, small gifts… whatever your lucky recipient is into! It’s the beauty of filling your own Advent calendar: they’ll get exactly what they want.

DIY Advent calendar

Feeling creative? Make your own Advent calendar from scratch! No one said it had to be a single item with doors to open. Grab a pack of envelopes and hang them from twine or a garland with wooden clothes pegs for a stunning, great-value alternative. For larger gifts, reusable bags or small boxes work well, or you could even stack cardboard boxes into a tree shape if you’ve got enough!

You could sew cloth pockets onto fabric for a stylish and cosy reusable Advent calendar for every year.

Pressed for space? Hide your Advent gifts around the home and write cryptic clues and prompts in envelopes for your family to find – it’s so much more entertaining than another piece of boring chocolate!

What to put inside your DIY Advent calendar

If you’re stuck for ideas (there are 24 gifts to buy, after all), here are some of our favourite things that your family will love to see in their homemade Advent calendars:

Treats

• Chocolate coins
• Small stationery: novelty erasers, stickers
• Small puzzles
• Sachets of hot chocolate or luxury teabags
• Scented tealights

Toiletries

• Bath bombs
• Perfume or aftershave samples

Activities

• A cookie or cake recipe that you can bake together that day
• A family movie night – with popcorn, of course
• A trip out – ice skating, Christmas markets or winter walks

Arts & Crafts

• Make paper snowflakes
• Create your own Christmas decorations
• Homemade Christmas cards

We’ve got a whole blog on DIY Christmas crafts for even more ideas.

Top tip: Combining physical gifts with experiences and activities makes your family Christmas countdown more varied and enriching for everyone. It also gives you a great excuse to spend some time with each other for some good old festive fun in the lead-up to the big day.

Make it a festive tradition!

Every family does Christmas differently, so here are some ideas for your family advent activities to make it yours.

Pick a theme each year

Choose from themes like Christmas crafting, food & drink, or random acts of kindness to keep things different every year.

Get the kids to help

If you’re doing a separate advent calendar for different members of the family, draft the others in to help! There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of giving gifts, so this will make sure everyone feels involved and festive.