Colouring NestAdvent activities for kids: a printable countdown for December
The easiest advent activities for kids are small, one-a-day jobs from 1 to 24 December: make a paper snowflake, write to Santa, colour a picture, help someone without being asked. Our free activity countdown chain prints 24 of these tasks on numbered strips that children tear off each morning, so the countdown is something to do rather than something to eat. Prefer a screen? Our free online advent calendar for kids opens a new printable each day. To print now: the Advent activity calendar (24 ideas) or the advent colouring book (24 pages).
When does Advent start in 2026?
In Western churches, Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to 30 November and lasts four Sundays. The word comes from the Latin adventus, "coming". The Church of England's calendar lists the First Sunday of Advent 2026 as 29 November, and with Christmas Day falling on a Friday this year, the four Sundays are 29 November and 6, 13 and 20 December.
Most advent calendars ignore that moving start. Britannica notes that most commercial calendars begin on 1 December because the length of Advent changes every year, and our countdown chains do the same: 24 strips, 1 December to Christmas Eve. If your family lights an advent wreath on the four Sundays, the chain sits happily alongside it.
The idea is older than the chocolate. BBC Bitesize explains that in the 19th century German Lutheran families marked chalk lines on doors and rubbed one out each day, and that the printer Gerhard Lang made what is thought to be the first commercial advent calendar in 1908, with paper pictures for children to stick on. A paper chain is close to those first calendars: something to count, make and use up.
How to make an advent activity chain
You need a printer, scissors, pencils or felt tips, and glue or sticky tape. Allow about half an hour, less if an adult does the cutting.
- Print. The Christmas activity countdown chain comes as an A4 and a US Letter PDF. Print at 100% on ordinary paper; thin card makes a sturdier chain but is harder to loop.
- Read the strips first. Each strip has a number and a task, from "Make a paper snowflake" on 24 sleeps to "Hang up your stocking" on Christmas Eve. Check them against your diary. If "Bake something yummy together" lands on a busy weeknight, swap that strip with one from the weekend before you glue anything.
- Colour and cut. Children colour the numbers and small pictures, then cut along the lines. Younger children can colour while an adult cuts.
- Loop. Glue or tape the first strip into a ring, thread the next strip through it and close that one, and carry on, with the highest number at the bottom so it comes off first.
- Hang it and tear one link a day. Read the task aloud at breakfast, so the day has time for it.
For children who just want to count the sleeps, the plain Christmas countdown chain has the same 24 numbered strips without tasks. It also works as quiet maths: ask how many links are left, and how many there will be at the weekend.
24 advent activity ideas, sorted by effort
These are the activities on our chain, grouped so you can see which need planning. Every one is free, and the paper ones link to a page you can print.
- Five minutes, nothing to prepare. Sing a Christmas song, tell a Christmas joke, count the Christmas lights you see on the way home, have a dance party, tell someone why they are special, hang up your stocking.
- Paper and pencil. Colour a Christmas picture, such as the Christmas tree colour by number (color by number, if you search the US way). Do the easy Christmas word search. Play Christmas picture bingo after dinner. Draw your dream present, or your family at Christmas. Write a letter to Santa.
- Making something. Make a paper snowflake from one of our paper snowflake templates; cut out a paper star for a window; colour a paper ornament and hang it on the tree; make a gift tag (our Christmas gift tags have two free sheets to colour in); make a card for someone you love.
- Kindness and giving. Help someone without being asked, wrap a present for someone, pick a toy to give away.
- Together time. Read a Christmas story, watch a Christmas film, bake something together, have a hot chocolate together.
If dinner conversation needs a nudge on a "five minutes" day, read out a few of the 24 Christmas would you rather questions, such as opening one present on Christmas Eve or all of them on Christmas Day.
Advent activities by age
Pick by attention span rather than exact age, and let older children help younger ones.
- Ages 3 to 5. Use the plain countdown chain, or read the activity strip aloud for them. Print templates at the largest size, so the star and ornament have big, simple edges to colour and cut. Preschool Christmas bingo uses 3×3 cards with large pictures, so a game ends before attention runs out.
- Ages 6 to 8. Most can read the strip themselves, which makes the morning tear-off their job. Word searches, colour by number and the draw-and-write letter to Santa suit this age, and paper snowflakes from the easy templates are a good first cutting challenge.
- Ages 9 to 12. Older children can run the chain for younger siblings, choose which day each task goes on, and take on the medium and hard snowflake templates or the hard Christmas word search (20 words in a 16×16 grid). Our guide on how to make paper snowflakes has the folding steps.
A giving countdown: the reverse advent calendar
A reverse advent calendar turns the countdown around: instead of taking something out each day, the family puts one item into a box, and the box goes to a food bank. The Trussell Trust, which runs a large network of UK food banks, publishes a reverse advent calendar listing long-life items such as tinned soup, tea bags, breakfast cereal, UHT milk, rice pudding and toilet rolls. It asks people to check their local food bank's website first for Christmas opening times and to see what it is running short of.
Timing matters. The Trussell Trust's calendar for churches suggests collecting through November and delivering to the food bank during the first week of December, so the donations arrive in time to be used at Christmas. To have a full box by then, start it in mid-November, or keep collecting through Advent and ask your food bank when it would like the box. Children can draw a label for the box, choose an item on each shop, and count how many tins they have collected, which pairs well with the "Pick a toy to give away" strip on the chain.
Keeping advent calm
A daily activity only helps if it doesn't add to the pressure. The American Academy of Pediatrics' parenting site suggests protecting family routines through the holiday rush, including sleep, naps for little ones and small anchors such as the same bedtime story. It also suggests choosing the events you can reasonably handle and declining the rest.
In practice, that means keeping each strip small, putting the bigger making tasks on weekends, and skipping a day without guilt: tear the link off and move on. In New Zealand, school term 4 ends no later than Friday 18 December, so the last week of the chain is often at home, and that's a good place for baking, wrapping and paper crafts. Not every child celebrates Christmas, so for a classroom or a mixed group, snowflakes and winter colouring pages work for everyone.
Plan the rest of December
Our Christmas printables planner sorts every free Christmas page by what you are planning, including an advent countdown, a family activity day and a class party. For the week after Christmas, the New Year's Eve countdown chain has 12 strips, one to tear off every hour from midday. If you'd like the activity sheets, mandalas, cards and a 2027 calendar printed in one go, the Christmas Family Bundle collects them in one bundle. If pages come out cropped or the wrong size, our guide on how to print colouring pages covers the printer settings.
