Every December, the Lopez children used to tear open a chocolate advent calendar and eat all twenty-four chocolates by the 3rd. One year, their mum tried something different: a printed calendar on the fridge with one small act of kindness for every day. Bake cookies for a neighbour. Call grandma. Donate a toy. By Christmas Eve, the children were more excited about the kindness list than the presents. This calendar is built for that kind of December.
How the Countdown Works
Each day from December 1 to December 25, your family completes one idea from the list and colours in the matching date on the calendar. Watching the days fill up builds excitement, and the activities turn the countdown into a month of shared moments rather than a month of sugar. Most ideas take less than an hour, and many take just five minutes.
A Festive Page in Red, Green and Gold
The calendar is US Letter, 8.5 x 11 inches, portrait, on a rich Christmas red. Four ornaments, two teal and two orange, hang from the top of the page on golden threads. Advent is written in white Mountains of Christmas, a playful, slightly wobbly holiday font, with COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS in gold spaced capitals underneath.
In the middle, a cream card with rounded corners holds the December 2027 calendar, with a deep green title row, red weekday names, centred green dates, and softly tinted weekends with red numbers. Below the card, 25 Days of Kindness is written in the same holiday font, followed by twenty-five numbered ideas in two columns, each with a small white circle holding the number. The 25th, Merry Christmas!, has a gold circle. Holly sprigs sit beside the list and in the bottom corner, and the OTO logo is in white at the foot.
The 25 Kindness Ideas
- Write a card to a neighbour
- Bake cookies to share
- Donate a toy
- Call a grandparent
- Leave a kind note
- Help with dinner
- Read a Christmas story
- Make a paper snowflake
- Thank a teacher
- Feed the birds
- Sing a carol
- Tidy without asking
- Give a compliment
- Donate a coat
- Watch a family film
- Make a gift by hand
- Visit the lights
- Write to Santa
- Share your toys
- Help a friend
- Hot cocoa night
- Wrap a present
- Hang a stocking
- Leave out cookies
- Merry Christmas!
Every idea is editable text, so swap any that do not suit your family, such as replacing Visit the lights with Visit a Christmas market.
Planning the List Around Your Diary
December is busy, so match the ideas to the days. Put quick ideas, like Give a compliment, on school nights, and longer ones, like Bake cookies to share, on weekends. Look at the calendar on the card: December 2027 starts on a Wednesday, so the first weekend is the 4th and 5th. If you are travelling or visiting family, choose ideas you can do anywhere, such as sing a carol or read a Christmas story.
The December Calendar on the Card
The calendar on the cream card is the editor’s built-in Calendar object, set to December 2027. Open Calendar Options to change the year for future Christmases; the dates update automatically. You can also change the week start, colours and font. Many families keep this template and print it again every year, changing a few of the ideas each time so the tradition grows with the children.
Advent Ideas for Classrooms
Teachers can use the same calendar as a classroom kindness countdown. Choose ideas that work at school, such as Thank the lunch staff, Make a card for a classmate, Help tidy the library, and Write to a care home. Each morning, a different pupil reveals the day’s idea and colours the date. The class can track their kindness on a shared display, ending with a celebration on the last day of term.
Recolouring and Personalising
Red, green and gold are the classic Christmas colours, but you can create a Nordic version with navy and white, or a soft version with blush and sage. Recolour the background and title, change the calendar colours in Calendar Options, and recolour the ornaments from their colour swatches. Add your family name to the title (The Lopez Family Advent). The holly and ornaments are editable vector illustrations that can be moved, resized, or replaced.
Printing the Advent Page on Card
Download the PDF and print on bright white card for strong reds. Hang it on the fridge with a festive magnet, or on the back of the kitchen door, with a red and green pen tied beside it. If you have several children, print one each so everyone can colour their own dates. For a lasting tradition, laminate a copy and use a dry-erase marker year after year.
What Happened by Christmas Eve
Back at the Lopez house, the first week was the hardest. The children asked where the chocolate was, and the idea of writing a card to a neighbour did not sound exciting. By the second week, something changed. The neighbour knocked on the door to say thank you, and the youngest child asked if they could make another card. By the third week, the children were reading ahead on the list and arguing about who got to colour in the date.
On Christmas Eve, they laid out the cookies for Santa (idea 24) and looked back at the calendar: twenty-four coloured dates, each one a small memory. Their mum kept the page in a box of Christmas decorations, and the next year the children helped choose new ideas for the list. That is the real goal of this advent calendar: not perfection, but a tradition that the family builds together.
Keeping the Countdown Realistic
If you miss a day, do not worry. Double up the next day, or swap in a quicker idea. The calendar is there to bring joy, not pressure, and no child will remember the one day you missed. Keep two or three spare ideas on a sticky note for the busiest evenings, such as a five-minute carol in the car on the way home.
Print the calendar on the last day of November, read the list together, and start counting down with kindness.
