Fun alternative advent calendar ideas with Scholastic

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Advent is such an exciting time of year for children. The bubbling anticipation of Christmas, the countdown and wishes that are made.  And children love the tradition of a daily advent calendar.

In our house we do our own version of a chocolate advent calendar.  We have a fabric calendar with pockets and drop in a chocolate coin and a Christmassy activity on a bit of paper.  You can check out my advent calendar activity suggestions and printable if you’re looking for ideas.

Of course the chocolate calendar isn’t the only type.  There’s so many other ideas out there, here’s some others you might want to try:

Alternative advent calendar ideas

• Advent candle – buy a specific one, or decorate your own with lines for the days, and burn down to each line every day
• Craft calendar – fill socks or pouches with a little craft activity each day, either go freestyle or make up little kits with instructions – try hama beads*, lego*, or friendship bracelets
• Food – put in little sprinkles for hot chocolate, or icing for biscuits
• Mini figures
• Create it like a treasure map with clues to find the 25th item
• Puzzle pieces

If you want to go more educational, then why not try a book advent calendar.  Wrap 24 books (in green looks great) and stack them from large to small to look like a Christmas tree.  Then each day the child (or family) gets to choose a book.

You can make these for any age – picture books for toddlers, and for older children, maybe build up a collection in a book series, or encourage them to read new and different books with a variety of chapter books and poetry.

Obviously you can make up your book packs yourself, but Scholastic books have created Christmas book packs to make life easier for parents.  With different age groups to choose from, each book bundle provides enough books to cover a daily advent book. Alternative The Works are great for Christmas books.

The ages covered are 0-7 and 7-11.  We chose the older range because we read chapter books together at bedtime, and N will soon be too old for the younger book pack. It means he can grow into the books.

What’s great about the packs is they’re unisex.  No boys and girls packs, although there are a couple of more girls oriented in our bundle which N will probably want to pass on to a friend.  But there are classics like The Railway Children and White Fang, as well as lots of animal themed books, and plenty with a Christmas theme.  The pack was topped off with a large hardback Horrible Histories Christmas book – this will be a favourite in our house.

You can make a serious saving buying this pack with it only costing £29.99, but obviously get in quick if you want it for Advent.

What type of advent calendar do you have in your house?

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