Advent Activity Ideas for Toddlers (UK): 24 Simple Ideas for December

Pennaby · 12 November 2026

An Advent calendar full of chocolate is easy to buy, but for toddlers the best part of December is often the small, shared moments: making something together, a walk to look at lights or a story at bedtime. An activity Advent calendar gives each day from 1 to 24 December one simple thing to do. This guide gives practical, low-cost Advent activity ideas for toddlers aged 1 to 4, how to plan them so they fit round nursery, work and naps, and safety tips for little ones.

When does Advent start in 2026?

Most Advent calendars run from 1 December to 24 December, and in 2026 1 December falls on a Tuesday. In the church calendar, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which this year is Sunday 29 November. For toddlers, the 1 to 24 December version is simplest, because it matches the numbered doors and pockets on most calendars.

Keep it toddler-sized

Five to fifteen minutes is plenty. Toddlers have short attention spans, so one small activity a day works better than a long craft session.
Plan round your week, not the other way round. Put the quickest ideas on nursery and work days and save anything messier or longer for weekends.
Repeat favourites. Toddlers love repetition. Reading the same Christmas book three times in December is not a failure.
Write the activity on a slip of paper and tuck it into the calendar pocket or envelope, so you are not deciding at 7am.
Swap days freely. If someone is poorly or the weather is awful, move the outdoor ideas around. Nobody is keeping score.

Creative and messy ideas

Colour a Christmas picture with chunky crayons and stick it on the fridge or a window.
Colour a favourite subject. Not every page needs to be festive. A child who loves diggers or tractors may happily colour one with a Santa hat drawn on.
Handprint or footprint art with washable paint: a handprint Christmas tree or a footprint reindeer makes a lovely card for grandparents.
Stickers on paper. Peeling stickers is great for small fingers, and a sheet of star stickers on dark paper makes a simple night-sky picture.
Decorate a paper chain one strip at a time, and add a link each day as a countdown.
Make salt dough decorations together, with an adult doing the baking.
Paint a cardboard box to turn into a sleigh, train or digger for role play.

Outdoor and out-and-about ideas

A Christmas lights walk after tea, wrapped up warm, counting lit-up windows or trees.
Feed the birds by hanging a seed feeder or putting out a shallow dish of water on frosty mornings.
Collect pine cones, sticks and leaves on a walk to decorate at home.
Visit the library to choose a Christmas book. It is free, and many libraries hold rhyme-time sessions for under-fives.
Post a card to a relative together and let your toddler put it in the postbox.
Puddle jumping or a muddy walk, because December in the UK is often more wet than white.

Cosy and quiet ideas

Read a Christmas story at bedtime, or wrap up a few books from your shelves to unwrap on different days.
Have a Christmas music dance party in the living room.
Watch a short Christmas film or episode together under a blanket.
Look through photos of last Christmas and talk about who is in them.
Make a den with blankets and fairy lights (battery ones, out of reach) and have a snack inside it.
Talk about the Christmas story or your family’s own traditions, in simple words.

Kitchen ideas

Decorate a plain biscuit with icing and sprinkles.
Help make a simple snack, such as stirring, pouring or arranging fruit on a plate.
Make reindeer food for Christmas Eve using oats only, as glitter is harmful to wildlife.
Help put the shopping away and spot Christmas foods in the bags.

Food safety matters with toddlers. The NHS advises cutting small round foods like grapes and cherry tomatoes lengthways, and you should keep whole nuts away from young children. Check any ready-made decorations or sweets for age warnings before giving them to under-threes.

Safety pointers for under-threes

Avoid small parts, beads, pompoms and googly eyes for children who still put things in their mouths, and check the age labels on craft kits.
Choose washable, non-toxic paints and crayons.
Keep button batteries, including those in light-up decorations and cards, well out of reach.
Supervise any activity with string, ribbon or scissors, and put craft supplies away afterwards.

A sample week of toddler Advent activities

Tuesday 1 December: put up the Advent calendar and add the first link to a paper chain.
Wednesday 2: colour a Christmas picture.
Thursday 3: read a Christmas story at bedtime.
Friday 4: music dance party before tea.
Saturday 5: handprint Christmas cards for grandparents.
Sunday 6: Christmas lights walk.
Monday 7: feed the birds.

Then repeat the pattern with new ideas, mixing quick and longer activities across the week.

Use a printable to plan it

Writing your 24 ideas down in one go saves a lot of thinking later. Our free printable Christmas countdown has spaces for 1 to 24 December, so you can pencil in an activity for each day and stick it on the fridge. For more on filling it in, read our guide to the free printable Christmas countdown.

For ready-made paper activities, our Kids Christmas Activity Pack has 8 pages of Christmas colouring, dot-to-dot, a word search and a maze. The colouring pages suit younger children with help, and the rest suits older siblings. You can download it from Gumroad and print a page whenever you need one.

If your toddler loves big machines, the My Big Digger Colouring Book (£6.97 on Amazon UK) has 40 bold, easy pictures for ages 2 to 5, one picture per page. One picture can be a quick Advent activity on a busy day, and the book also works as a stocking filler. Our guide to colouring books for toddlers has tips on crayons and colouring at different ages.

Quick checklist

Choose a calendar with pockets, envelopes or a simple numbered list.
Write 24 short activities, with quick ones on busy days.
Gather supplies in one box: crayons, paper, stickers, glue stick and washable paint.
Check age labels and remove small parts for under-threes.
Plan outdoor ideas with a wet-weather swap.
Keep it fun, and skip a day without guilt if you need to.

Looking for more festive ideas? See our free Christmas activities for kids and stocking fillers for toddlers.