Free Advent Countdown Calendar • notice the LITTLE things

Counting down the days until Christmas is one of our family’s favorite things to do! Like so many Moms, I try to use this time to keep the kids focused on the true reason for the season – but it can be HARD. One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is to focus on grace & gratitude as we wait. In this post, download our favorite Free Printable Advent Calendar plus Paper Chain Countdown Strips to encourage a mindset of gratitude and generosity as you wait with excitement for Jesus’ birthday.

there are so many magical things about the Christmas season and anticipating the birth of Jesus! i love the decor, lights, christmas cookies, and music as much as the next person but i also want my kids to keep the right mindset during this time of year.

maybe you feel the same way and find yourself wondering:

how can i teach my kids the real meaning of christmas?
how can i keep my kids focused on the true meaning of christmas?
what are some easy, fun ways to celebrate advent?
how can i make the christmas countdown meaningful?
how can i teach my kids to be grateful at christmas?

there are MANY MANY ways you can help your kids focus on the real meaning of christmas. our favorite way is to focus on grace and gratitude for the wait.

after a few years of focusing on kindness, we shifted just a tad to focus on gratitude. to make it easy and fun for the kids, i created a Printable Advent Gratitude Countdown Calendar.

FREE PRINTABLE ADVENT COUNTDOWN CALENDAR FOR FAMILIES

the best part is, it also comes with Paper Chain Countdown Strips so the kids can tear off a link each day, do the grateful deed, and “watch” the days countdown to Jesus birthday.

you can grab this Free Printable Advent Gratitude Countdown Calendar for your family right here.

inside you’ll find a cute, fun Advent Calendar for Kids to help them focus on the true meaning of christmas with 1 grateful deed to do a day for the 25 days leading up to Jesus’ birthday.

here are some examples of the grateful deeds you’ll find on this Free Advent Countdown Calendar.

giving everyone at the table a compliment to show your appreciation for each person in your family.
writing a letter to a friend to tell them 3 things you admire about them.
facetiming someone you haven’t seen in awhile to tell them you miss them.
finding 3 toys to give away so someone new can be thankful to use them.

Advent Activities for Families

another fun way we like to teach our kids the true meaning of the christmas season is by using the Prepare Him Room 4-Week Guided Gratitude Journal, which includes a Prepare Him Room Advent Guided Gratitude Journal for Moms and also a Prepare Him Room Advent Guided Gratitude Journal for Families.

Prepare Him Room was designed especially with a busy family’s schedule in mind – with beautiful, engaging Advent Activities for Kids + a 4-Week Guided Gratitude Journal for Moms.

inside, you’ll find pages to help you focus on the Christmas Story and allllllll the small moments that make this time of year just the best ever!

the good news is – right now, Prepare Him Room is on sale so if you’d like to learn more and see if this popular resource is right for your family, you can find more details right here.

Other Easy Ideas for Advent

another way we try to keep ourselves and our kids focused on the true meaning of the christmas season is to put our advent wreath in the center of the table and light it while we make and eat dinner.

i used to only light it if we had time to sit down and say a prayer. that worked well after dinner when the kids were younger, but as they’ve gotten older – they do their Prepare Him Room activities or we read the prayers from the little book from Church at different times during the day, and it’s not always convenient to light the wreath.

so now we just light it each night and just the candles being lit remind us that this is a more special, more sacred time of year.

additionally, we like to weave in the following activities to bring more meaning to the Advent season:

Set up our nativity set in a place the kids can reach and play with it throughout the day.
Drive around and look at Christmas lights as we listen to holiday music.
Play holiday music around the house with a religious focus – my favorite is Amy Grant Christmas
Involve the kids in filling a bag with their own toys to donate to a local charity to make room for new things and give other kids a chance to make memories with toys you’ve grown out of.
Give small gifts in the mornings like markers, baking supplies, or bookmarks to encourage more time spent together in this special season.

Summary: Easy Advent Ideas for Families

when considering how to teach kids to focus on the true meaning of christmas or how to make the countdown to christmas more meaningful, it helps to pick just a couple central things to focus on, like the Free Printable Advent Gratitude Countdown Calendar or the Prepare Him Room Guided Gratitude Journals for Advent.

then, if there’s time you can sprinkle in additional Advent Activities for Families like holiday music, an advent wreath, or driving around to look at lights – but you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by trying to do all the things