An Advent calendar does not need chocolate to make the wait for Christmas Eve exciting. Swapping the treat for a small daily challenge turns the countdown into memories: a card for a neighbour, a blanket fort in the living room, an evening walk to see the lights.
The family variant offers 24 challenges that take about half an hour with children and need nothing you would have to buy. The adult variant has 16, roughly the number of working days in December before the holidays, so a team or a group of friends can join in without eating into work time.
Every result shows exactly what to do, so nobody has to invent the activity on the spot.
How to use it
- Choose the variant: family with children, or adults and colleagues.
- Every morning, spin the wheel once and announce the challenge of the day.
- If a challenge you have already done comes up, or the weather rules it out, spin again.
- Tick off each completed challenge on a sheet stuck to the fridge or in the team chat: the full list makes a lovely recap on the 24th.
All the options
- Card for a neighbour
- Draw a Christmas card and slip it through a neighbour’s door, ideally someone who lives alone. Everyone in the family signs it.
- Carol in a round
- Pick a carol everyone knows, such as Jingle Bells. Split into two groups: the second starts the same verse one line after the first.
- Paper snowflakes
- Fold a square sheet into a triangle three times, snip notches along the edges, then unfold. No two flakes look alike: stick them to the windows with reusable putty.
- Toy to donate
- Each child picks a toy in good condition they no longer play with. Drop them off together at a charity shop or a toy drive.
- Christmas lights walk
- After dinner, walk around the neighbourhood and count the decorated windows. Whoever spots the most original display chooses the bedtime story.
- Cookie decorating
- Bake a batch of plain shortbread and decorate it with icing. Bag a few to thank someone: a teacher, a childminder, the building caretaker.
- Letter to grandparents
- Write or dictate a real paper letter with three pieces of news from the week and a drawing. Post it the same day so it arrives before the holidays.
- Screen-free evening
- Phones and tablets sleep in a box until bedtime. Instead: a board game, a jigsaw or a story read aloud.
- Blanket fort
- Build a fort in the living room with chairs, sheets and cushions. Read a Christmas story inside by torchlight.
- Bird feeder
- Coat a pine cone with vegetable fat, roll it in birdseed and hang it from a branch or balcony. Skip the bread: it is poor food for birds.
- A compliment for everyone
- At dinner, each person gives a specific compliment to everyone else at the table. “You helped me carry the shopping” beats “you are nice”.
- Upcycled ornament
- Make a tree ornament from things heading for the bin: a cardboard tube, bottle tops, scraps of wrapping paper. Give it pride of place.
- Hidden kind note
- Write a short note and hide it in a school bag, coat pocket or shoe belonging to someone in the family. They must not find out who wrote it.
- Pass-along story
- Start with “The night Santa’s sleigh broke down…”. Each person adds one sentence in turn until the story reaches an ending.
- Three-song tidy-up
- Play three Christmas songs: everyone tidies their room before the last one ends. Anything still lying around goes into a basket to sort at the weekend.
- Photo with props
- Make cardboard props (reindeer antlers, a cotton-wool beard, a star) and take a family photo. It can double as your Christmas card.
- Countdown paper chain
- Cut strips of paper and loop them into a chain, one link for each day left until Christmas. Every morning, a child removes a link.
- Mirror dance
- In pairs, face to face: one dances to a Christmas song while the other copies every move like a reflection. Swap roles with each song.
- Hide the ornament
- An adult hides a small ornament in one room. The children search for it, guided by “cold”, “warmer” and “hot”.
- Thank the postal worker
- Make a drawing or a thank-you note for the person who delivers your post, the bin collectors or a neighbour who helps out, and hand it over in person.
- Living room picnic
- Spread a tablecloth on the floor and eat dinner sitting on it, main lights off, lit only by the tree lights.
- Merry Christmas in 3 languages
- Learn to say Merry Christmas in French (Joyeux Noël), Spanish (Feliz Navidad) and Italian (Buon Natale). Use it with everyone you meet today.
- Christmas jumper parade
- Everyone wears a festive jumper, or decorates an old one with ribbons and clothes pegs. Parade down the hallway to a round of applause.
- Memory of the year
- Each person shares their best moment of the year while an adult writes it down. Seal the notes in an envelope to open next December.
Frequently asked questions
What challenges can I put in an Advent calendar for kids?
Short activities that cost nothing and fit on a school night: paper crafts, a kind gesture for a neighbour, a screen-free game, a short walk. Save the longer ones (baking, building a fort) for weekends.
When does Advent start?
Shop-bought calendars run from 1 to 24 December. Liturgical Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which falls between 27 November and 3 December depending on the year.
How do I run an Advent challenge calendar at work?
Ask one person to spin the wheel every morning and post the challenge in the team channel. Keep each challenge under fifteen minutes and always optional, and wrap up on the last working day with a list of everything the team completed.
What if today’s challenge cannot be done?
Spin again, or move the challenge to the weekend. The idea is one activity per day; the order does not matter.