Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar: an alternative Advent calendar printable

This free printable Christmas Kindness Advent calendar makes a great alternative Advent calendar, encouraging children to put others first and practice random acts of kindness all season long, at home, in school and in their community.

A Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar

This Christmas season, let’s encourage our children to think of others and spread joy.

Rather than focus on presents and what they will receive, we can help our children think about the real meaning of Christmas by using this alternative Advent calendar.

Each day of Advent, use our free printable Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar to do an act of kindness in your family, school or community.

This activity is part of our Advent activities and printables and part of our Christmas activities and crafts for children.

In this activity, you can:

:: think about the meaning of Christmas and how your children want to celebrate it

:: print an alternative Advent calendar with a Random Acts of Kindness list for children to follow through December

:: work individually or as a community group to serve your family, school and community

:: spread kindness

What is a Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar?

Christmas can be a very busy time of year and children can often see the focus of the holidays as being about what they receive, getting presents, taking part in activities, sometimes feeling overwhelmed and rushing from one thing to another without any real meaning.

A Christmas Kindness Advent calendar shifts this focus, and can help bring meaning to the holidays. Whether you are celebrating a Christian Christmas or enjoying a secular festival, we can encourage our children to think about why they are celebrating and what the real meaning of the season is.

You might be using Advent to think about the life and teaching of Jesus. You might be looking to serve your community and show kindness and love to others. A Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar will help you do this.

This alternative Advent calendar, rather than give your children a cute picture to see or a chocolate to eat each day, instead invites your children to give to others. Every day on our Advent calendar, we have a suggestion for an act of kindness that children can perform for someone else.

How to use a kindness calendar

Print the kindness calendar (see below). You can print as many copies as you wish, for each class, each family or each child. You can print in colour or black and white, and have your children add illustrations of hearts and smiles if they like.

Stick your calendar up on the wall or fridge door or somewhere you will see it each day.

As we move through Advent, pick one square each day, read the act of kindness, and try to do it. You can cross off or colour in each square as you complete the acts of kindness.

You can number the squares, 1 to 24 like a traditional Advent calendar, and do them in date order or do them in random order – whichever best suits your routine. Through Advent, 24 acts of kindness builds up to your children doing lots of service in their community, whatever order they are done in.

You can use the Kindness Calendar as a family: children can serve each other or work together as a sibling team.

You might like to use the calendar in class or as a whole school activity, setting the tone in your school for a kind and serving Christmas season.

You can also use the calendar in community groups, Brownies / Guides, Scouts, Sunday School or children’s ministries, sharing at each weekly meeting what everyone has been doing to serve their community during the week.

What activities can you include in a Christmas Kindness Calendar?

Each box on the Christmas Kindness Calendar suggests an act of kindness the children can do that day.

The acts are simple, don’t cost money, and should be accessible to all children.

You can decide how much time to spend on each activity and in what order you want to do them.

Don’t worry if you can’t complete them all or don’t have time to do one each day – focus on the abundance of kindness you are sharing over the month.

Here’s our list of random acts of kindness for children that are included in our Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar:

1: Smile at people all day long

2: Feed the birds in your garden or local park

3: Pick up litter in your school or neighbourhood

4: Donate some of your old books to charity

5: Do a chore for a member of your family

6: Ask your parent, guardian or teacher what you can do to help them

7: Help out doing the laundry

8: Hold doors open for people

9: Give food to a food bank

10: Read someone a story

11: Invite someone on their own to play

12: Write a list of three things you are grateful for

13: Thank an adult for helping you

14: Donate some of your old toys to charity

15: Phone a grandparent or other senior for a chat

16: Make a Christmas card for your teacher

17: Tell your friends why you like them

18: Let someone go ahead of you in a queue

19: Make a snack or meal for your family or neighbour

20: Clean up your bedroom or family room

21: Tell your parent or guardian why you appreciate them

22: Ask someone if they would like a hug or high five

23: Write a thank you note

24: Help your parent or guardian make dinner

More Advent activities and crafts

See all our Advent crafts and activities here, including how to make an Advent calendar, printable colour-in Advent wreath and our Nativity teaching resources.