An advent calendar for kids does not need to contain 24 presents. What works for most families is a mix: a small thing every third or fourth day, a note with something you do together on the other days, and chocolate at the weekends. The container, socks on a string for example, is used year after year. In total it comes to about what a few shop-bought calendars cost, and the children remember it more.
At nine in the evening on 30 November, someone in every family with children in Stockholm is sitting and stuffing things into little bags. It is one of those evenings that decides whether December will be calm or stressful. We have seen calendars with 24 toys that wore the child out by the seventh, and calendars with 24 notes that the child ignored from the third. What lasts the whole of December is the mix. Here is how we put it together, and 24 concrete suggestions for the doors.
Which type of calendar suits you?
| Type | Effort | Cost | Suits ages | The problem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shop-bought chocolate calendar | None | Low | 2 and up | Chocolate for breakfast for 24 days |
| Shop-bought toy calendar | None | High | 3 to 9 | Small plastic parts that are lost by January, high expectations |
| Homemade with small things | One evening | Medium | 2 to 12 | Finding 24 things that are not junk |
| Activity calendar with notes | One evening, then time every day | Low | 4 to 12 | Actually having the energy for the activity on 14 December |
| Mixed: things, notes, chocolate | One evening | Low to medium | 2 to 12 | Nothing major, which is why we recommend it |
| Book calendar, a book or a chapter a day | Borrowing from the library | None | 3 to 10 | Requires you to read every evening, which is the point |
The container: the part you do once
Twenty-four cloth bags, or twenty-four socks that have lost their partner, hung on a string with clothes pegs across the window or along a wall. Numbers on tags tied on. It takes an hour the first year and five minutes every year after that. Alternatives: small envelopes in a basket, toilet rolls wrapped in paper and stacked in a pyramid, or matchboxes painted by the children in November, which is itself a craft from our Christmas crafts for children. What does not work is a calendar that requires you to find a special box in the right size every year.
24 doors, mixed
Here is a complete calendar for a child between four and eight. Swap out anything that does not fit. The numbers are examples, put things where you like, but have something on 1 December, or the child loses faith.
- A little Christmas figure to put in the window
- Note: we bake gingerbread biscuits on Saturday
- Stickers
- A piece of chocolate, it is Sunday
- Note: we light the second advent candle and eat supper by candlelight
- A new set of pens or a crayon in a new colour
- Note: we go and look at the Christmas lights in town after förskola (municipal preschool, from age one)
- A piece of chocolate
- A little book or a bookmark
- Note: Christmas film on the sofa with popcorn
- A puzzle with few pieces, or a piece of a bigger puzzle that is built over December
- A piece of chocolate, Sunday
- A lussebulle (saffron bun) on the breakfast table, it is lucia
- Note: we make Christmas cards for grandma and grandpa
- A hairband, a pair of patterned socks, something small to wear
- Note: we look through the Christmas crafts guide and choose a craft
- A little car, an animal, a figure
- Note: we build a gingerbread house, or buy a ready-made one and decorate it
- A piece of chocolate
- Note: we listen to Christmas songs and dance in the kitchen
- A bath with a bath bomb or bubble bath
- Note: we wrap Christmas presents for siblings or mum and dad
- A piece of chocolate, it is the day before
- Note: merry Christmas. A slightly bigger thing if you like, otherwise nothing at all, because today the presents come anyway
How to adapt it by age
- 2 to 3 years. No notes, because waiting is incomprehensible. A small thing or a picture of what happens today. Chocolate at most every other day, and preferably in the afternoon rather than the morning.
- 4 to 6 years. The mix above. You read the notes, and the activity happens the same day, because a four year old does not remember that Saturday was promised on Thursday.
- 7 to 9 years. More notes, fewer things. Riddles behind the doors, clues to a treasure on the 24th, or a chapter a day from a Christmas book. This is the age when a calendar that tells a story beats everything.
- 10 to 12 years. They say they do not care, and they care a lot. Fewer doors with a little more in them: something to do on their own, a book, a note with a grown-up activity such as going for a fika in town together without the younger siblings.
What usually goes wrong, and how to avoid it
The most common thing is that the calendar becomes a debt. Whoever filled it has twenty-four chances to miss one, and seven in the morning on 17 December is not the moment to be hunting for something. Fill all the doors at once, on 30 November. Keep three spare notes in a kitchen drawer for days when you change your mind. The second thing that goes wrong is notes with activities nobody has the energy for. A note that says you are going to a Christmas market on a Wednesday in December when förskola finishes at five is a note that disappoints a child. Only write activities that take under an hour and can be done at home, with the exception of weekends. The third is siblings. Two children with different contents compare every morning. Same contents, or every other day from a shared calendar.
And one more piece of advice: do not photograph every door. It is a calendar, not a production. The child who gets to open the door in pyjamas at breakfast while you drink your coffee has had what they need.
How we do it with our families
Aleksandra has had a family in Järfälla for several years, and on 30 November she usually takes the evening shift so the parents can fill the calendar in peace, or the other way round: she fills it from a list the parents have written while they put the children to bed. During December she is often the one who does the note activities on weekdays, because she is there between three and six. The gingerbread biscuits are baked on a Tuesday, the Christmas cards made on a Thursday. She writes on her note what was done and what was left over, so the parents can talk about it at dinner. It is not her calendar, but they are her afternoons.
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Read more: Christmas crafts for children · Christmas presents for children by age · Christmas with children · Prices
Frequently asked questions
From what age does an advent calendar make sense?
From around two, when the child understands that it is one door a day. Before that the calendar is mostly for you. A two year old can manage a calendar with a small thing or a picture a day, not one with activities that require waiting.
Does every door have to contain a thing?
No. The calendars that work best in the families we visit are mixed: a small thing every third or fourth day, an activity or a craft on the other days, and chocolate at the weekends. Children from four think a note with something you are going to do together is as much fun as an object.
What do you do when there are two children?
One calendar with shared doors, where the children open every other day, or two identical calendars. What does not work is two different calendars with different contents. That comparison gets made every morning in December.
What do you do when you forgot to fill it?
Keep three spare notes in a kitchen drawer: bake gingerbread biscuits, watch a Christmas film, go and look at the Christmas lights. Slipping a note into the door in the morning takes a minute. Nobody notices, and it saves 17 December.
How much does a homemade calendar cost?
Whatever you want. Cloth bags or socks on a string cost a little the first year and get used for ten. The contents can be completely free if you go with activities and notes, or a few tens of kronor per door if you put in small things.