Fun and Unique Advent Calendars for kids

Are you looking for ideas to countdown to Christmas with your family. There’s so many lovely advent calendars for kids on the market and you can also make some handmade ones that you fill with treats or even family activity ideas. I think a Book Advent Calendar is a lovely idea for your family – what could be more lovely than cosying up together and unwrapping a book every night. This post has some great tips on how to create a Book Advent Calendar, including how to keep the costs down. From fairy light trees to stationery sets, here are some lovely and unique Advent Calendar ideas for kids this December.

Fun and Unique Advent Calendar for Kids

Smiggle Advent Calendar

If you have kids that love stationery or you’re looking for an advent calendar that’s useful well beyond Christmas, the Smiggle Advent Calendar 2019 has 25 days of limited edition Smiggle stationery surprises including 8 items that are exclusive to the calendar.

A lovely extra is that if you find 1 of 30 lucky tickets inside and win a HUGE Smiggle shopping spree! Smiggle stationery is perfect for kids, both boys and girls aged 6+ and even teens will love it!

Want to take a peek inside? The calendar includes:

• 1 x Silicon Bag Tag
• 1 x Cloud Eraser
• 1 x Pencil
• 1 x 15cm Ruler
• 1 x Pencil Tube
• 1 x Scented Sticker Pack
• 1 x Rainbow Pen
• 1 x Fan Eraser
• 1 x Spy Pen
• 1 x Lanyard
• 2 x Mini Gel Pens
• 1 x Mini Stapler
• 1 x Sharpener
• 1 x Glitter Glue
• 1 x Rainbow Pencil
• 1 x Multi Eraser Pen
• 1 x Mini Markers Pack x5
• 1 x Slapband
• 1 x Paperclip
• 1 x Notebook Keyring
• 1 x Ice Cream Pen
• 1 x Mini Colouring Pad
• 1 x Stax On Highlighters
• 1 x Pencil Case

You can also buy the Smiggle Advent Calendar from Amazon.

Playmobil Advent Calendar

Playmobil is a children’s classic and so it’s the perfect choice for an advent calendar where the contents will be played with for a long time afterwards. There’s also lots of choice in Playmobil advent calendars from a Christmas Ball to a Construction site or Horse Farm so there’s something for children with different interests. There’s also a Special Christmas in the forest suitable for younger children so all ages of kids are catered for these kids advent calendars. Find the Playmobil Advent Calendar on Amazon here.

Gruffalo Advent Calendar

If you’re looking for a reusable advent calendar that could become a family favourite year after year – than you’ll love this beautiful Gruffalo advent calendar. The Gruffalo offering for this year is one to treasure! It’s a musical Advent calendar which features beautiful music from The Gruffalo film, fun facts about the characters, stickers and magnetic characters that can skate around the scene using a magnetised mechanism. It’s a lovely, interactive advent calendar for little ones (aged3+). It’s available to purchase here or also at on ‘Not on the High Street.’

Jewellery Advent Calendar

Another chocolate free advent calendar for kids is this pretty jewellery box from Meri Meri. This is a really special advent calendar where you can create your very own Christmas charm bracelet, one day at a time. Each day you receive a new charm to add to your collection, so that by Christmas Day you have the whole set and a lovely bracelet to wear and it’s a gift that has great longevity as you can wear it year after year. The calendar is decorated with a wintery ice skating theme, all packaged up in a shimmering pink box. You can purchase from Not on the High Street here or Amazon here.

Handmade DIY Advent Calendars for Kids

Fairy Light Tree Advent Calendar

Celebrating the Advent Season doesn’t need to be expensive, there are lots of handmade advent calendar ideas you can make. For the last few years, I’ve made a Fairylight Tree Advent Calendar you can read more about this in the link. I reuse the little boxes and brown paper envelopes every year. You could even get the kids to decorate them! I pop little treats in the boxes like sweets, stationery or sometimes I add an activity that we’re going to do as a family that day – like bake cookies, watch a Christmas film or go Christmas light spotting!

If you’d like to make your own handmade advent calendar. Amazon has advent bunting, mini numbered boxes or cute drawstring bags to make setting up your own DIY advent calendar really easy and personalised for your family. You could even add some Christmas movie ideas – see here for a Christmas Movie advent!

Kindness Elves, Random Acts of Kindness for Advent

A tradition we started a while back (as an alternative to Elf on the Shelf) was to invite the Kindness Elves into our home to encourage the kids to be kind and do kind deeds for others around Christmas. They normally leave little notes in our advent calendar suggesting we ‘Bake Cookies for the Neighbours’ or make a ‘Bird Feeder’ to cheer up the birds.

Here are some Random Acts of Kindness ideas for adding to your advent calendar for kids:

• Write your teacher a note or a poem about why you like them.
• Clear out your old books and donate them to the school library.
• Read your little brother or sister a bedtime story.
• Try to pay five people a compliment every day
• Leave your pound coin in the locker at the swimming pool for the next person who uses it.
• Do a litter pick in your local area.
• In the playground, organise a game for children from one of the younger classes.

The Kindness Elves are such a wonderful family tradition during a season that can be focused on asking for gifts, I am hoping that we can help our kiddos focus on what we can give others.

If you’d like to start a Kindness Elves holiday Tradition with your family, the full range of Kindness Elves to purchase can be found here. (aff.link)

If you’d like to find out more about the Kindness Elves, please check out these posts below…..

Simple Ways to Spread Kindness with Kids: More Kindness Ideas for Using the Kindness Elves

Kindness Elves Review

Family Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar

If you’re looking to discover a way to connect with your family this Christmas, to bring back the joy of celebration without the trappings of materialism and sprinkle some seasonal sparkle over your Christmas – then you’ll like my 24 fun little ideas to celebrate the Countdown to Christmas together as a family. Make this holiday season memorable and fun with this great Christmas Activities Countdown Calendar for Families printable. Enjoy doing a Christmas activity each day, counting all the way down to Christmas.

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. We were gifted a set of the Kindness Elves and some advent calendars in exchange for a review. All thoughts and photos are my own.)