Part 3 of our Christmas Countdown series: Stay organized and intentional this holiday season with our FREE printable Advent Christmas Planner designed to keep your family traditions stress-free.
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One of my favorite decorations and traditions since 2008 has been our Christmas Advent Activities Garland. That year, I found some Advent coloring pages online. I had my artist child draw the pictures in a smaller size, and let the other kids color them. I transferred the finished colored drawings onto fabric that I made in the shape of little houses, which I attached to a ribbon to create a beautiful Advent garland. There are so many ways to do an Advent or Christmas countdown. You can buy a garland already made, or there are plenty of ideas to make your own. A Google search for “advent garland” will yield a plethora of options.
We hung our Advent garland on our fireplace, and inside each pocket, we put a card with an Advent scripture on the front and an activity label on the back. Every morning whosever turn it was to open a book that evening would read the back of the card to everyone to see what fun things we were going to do that day. I simply created the labels in Microsoft Word and printed on Avery address labels, but you could simply write your family activities down on the back of the card.
The hard part is trying to decide what activities you want to do and what day you’re going to do them. The holidays are usually a busy and stressful time, so you will want to plan your Christmas activities in a way that doesn’t add to that, but allows you to slow down and enjoy the Christmas season and make it meaningful for your family.
Free Christmas Advent Planner
To make it easy to plan well chosen activities for your family, I created some FREE printable planning worksheets that will help you and take the stress out of planning. It includes everything you need to plan out 24 days of holiday fun.
You can download all the worksheets (most are editable PDFs) you will see below here: Christmas Advent Planner, or scroll down and download only the ones you want.
Advent Activity Planning Pages
Space to organize all 24 days of activities so you can plan ahead and stay on track.
Advent Scripture & Activity Pages
Each day has room for both the Bible reading and the activity, keeping everything faith-focused.
Advent Bible Reading Tracker
A layout to record daily scriptures for December 1–24—perfect if you want to use the included Luke, Matthew, and Isaiah readings or swap in your own.
Advent Book Log
Track the 24 books your family reads in December with spaces for title and author.
Christmas Booklist Suggestions
A ready-made booklist of classic picture books and chapter books to inspire your tradition.
Advent Activity Ideas List
40 activity suggestions, from crafts and baking to outings and special family nights, to give you plenty of inspiration.
Letters to Santa
Fun templates kids can fill in—sweet keepsakes for years to come.
Christmas Wish List Pages
Dedicated pages for wish lists, perfect for kids (and even adults!).
December Calendar Overview
A full monthly spread to keep track of Advent, family gatherings, and special events.
We have paperback versions of our planner with journaling pages for kids to use, designed to be used by the whole family, available on Amazon. Check them out!
If you want a Christmas activity book just for the kids, you might like our Christmas Countdown Coloring And Activity Book available on Amazon.
Closing Thoughts
Our Advent Activities has been one of the most joyful and memorable parts of our Christmas season. My hope is that this planner helps your family create your own meaningful Advent traditions—ones that will be remembered and carried on for years to come.
If you missed the first two posts in this series, you can find them here:
[…] If you decide to read the bible verses as a part of your family tradition, you can read about how we incorporate them and download a FREE printable of the Scripture Advent Cards (with the complete scriptures) in the second part of this series here: Advent Scripture Cards for The 24 Books of Christmas Tradition. If you want to skip the Advent scriptures post, you can read the third and final part of this series here: Planning Christmas Activities. […]
[…] You can read about how we plan our Christmas activities and find tips to planning your own Christmas Countdown activities in my last post in this series: Planning Christmas Advent Activities. […]