Use this printable preschool Advent calendar with your preschool students or your preschool-aged children. It’s chock full of fun and engaging Christmas activities for preschoolers!
Related: Christmas Five Senses Book Free Printable
Counting down to Christmas is always fun for the kiddos in my class, as well as my son. I must admit, I enjoy it too!
Small activities to celebrate each day make the waiting more bearable, as does having a calendar to mark off the days.
With this in mind, I put together a printable preschool Advent calendar that children can use. You can grab your own copy at the very end of this post.
Printable Preschool Advent Calendar
Each day has an activity suggestion that the kids can do while they’re waiting for Christmas to arrive. Here’s the breakdown:
December 1
Write a letter to Santa!
Ask how he’s doing, then share one or two things you’d love to get for Christmas.
In addition to being a fun activity, this really works on early literacy skills.
Alternatively, this would be a great modeled writing experience you can do with the entire class.
December 2
Create a Christmas Senses book. This has become a holiday tradition in my preschool classroom, so I couldn’t leave it off of our preschool Advent calendar.
Combine art, literacy, and sensory while creating a book that can be read over and over again!
December 3
Go on a nature walk and hunt for pine cones.
Then come home and make a pine cone Christmas craft!
December 4
Make a snowman fingerprint ornament!
These are perfect as gifts for grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
December 5
Gather some items to donate to your local food bank or shelter.
This is a great way to share your blessings with those less fortunate.
December 6
Set up a Christmas Contact paper art sticky table! Contact paper and some Christmas-themed craft supplies are all that’s needed for hours of fun.
This activity combines process art with fine motor skills.
And, let me tell you, the kids enjoyed creating transient art so very much. I loved seeing the different creations they made.
December 7
Make a name candy cane craft ornament.
Work on early literacy and fine motor skills while putting together a fun Christmas craft.
December 8
Make a fingerprint Christmas lights frame! Use your fingers to make lights, then take a fun picture to place inside the frame (be sure to see what my preschool kids did for their pictures)!
It’s a wonderful gift for friends or family.
December 9
Get into some fun candy cane sensory play!
The beautiful red and white colors, along with the delicious peppermint scent, engage the senses!
December 10
Act out a favorite story with a dramatic play gingerbread man activity! Grab a few items from the kitchen, then retell the story.
Lots of early literacy skills being worked on during this activity.
December 11
Decorate colorful popsicle stick snowflakes.
This traditional Christmas craft works on math and fine motor skills, too!
December 12
Play with Christmas geoboard trees!
Work on math and fine motor skills while exploring and building a Christmas-themed geoboard.
December 13
Make a book about the gingerbread man.
Art and literacy skills aplenty while making this fun book!
December 14
Explore preschool magnet science with jingle bells.
Lots of science and math fun!
December 15
Decorate mini fine motor Christmas trees. Grab some Styrofoam trees and a few craft items, then get to it!
This activity is great for working fine motor skills.
December 16
Jump into an engineering project for kids by building dens for winter animals.
This fun challenge will get kiddos thinking outside of the box.
December 17
Make and eat a reindeer Christmas snack. I couldn’t help but add at least one or two treats to our preschool Advent calendar!
It’s super simple to make, and it was a big hit with my preschoolers last year!
December 18
Make a “lights on the tree” preschool Christmas activity and sensory bin.
You can use the leftovers from the candy cane sensory bin you made earlier!
Just add a Styrofoam tree and some Contact paper.
December 19
Make a collaborative pine tree art project for kids!
This is perfect if you have small bits of your Christmas tree that have fallen, and it doesn’t have to be collaborative.
It’s also great for creating after a hunt for pine cones outside!
December 20
Wrap presents! If your presents are all ready to go, set up a pretend play wrapping center.
This works on fine motor skills, language, and it lets kids wrap and open “presents” to their hearts’ content!
December 21
Make your own marshmallow names winter craft for kids!
Fine motor and literacy skills are worked on, and I won’t tell if you sneak a few marshmallows!
December 22
Play a Christmas math game with jingle bells and dice with your family.
Super easy to set up, and it works on math and fine motor skills!
December 23
Sing Christmas carols with your family!
In addition to being just plain fun, this works on important language and literacy skills.
December 24
Make Christmas cookies! Don’t forget to set some out for Santa tonight.
Grab your free printable Advent calendar at the bottom of this post!
There are three versions of the calendar – a basic black-and-white one that’s perfect for printing, an all-text calendar with clickable links that go right to each activity, and a picture and text version with clickable pictures.
I’d love to see pictures of you and the kiddos trying out the preschool advent calendar’s activities. Don’t forget to grab your copy at the end of this post!
Feel free to share them over on the Fun-A-Day Facebook page.
More Advent Calendar Ideas for Kids
- Snowmen Advent Calendar from Rainy Day Mum
- Christmas Calendar Advent Calendar Printable from Mama Smiles
- An Occupational Therapy Christmas Advent Calendar from Sugar Aunts
- Count Down to Christmas with Numbers & Math from 3 Dinosaurs
- Christmas Advent for Toddlers and Preschoolers from Tales of Beauty for Ashes
- Homemade Christmas Countdown for kids from The Gingerbread House
- DIY Christmas Tree Advent Calendars from Crafty Kids at Home
- Fun and Easy Countdown Card from Peakle Pie
- Advent Elf Countdown from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots
- Coloring Advent Calendar from The Creative Pair
- Christmas Cookie Advent Calendar from Kitchen Counter Chronicles
- Printable Family Activities Advent Calendar from Creative Family Fun
- Winter Snowflakes Advent Calendar from My Bright Firefly
- Advent Acts of Kindness Free Printables from The Mad House
- Story Book Advent Snowman from Adventures of Adam
- How to Organize and Easy and Fun Advent Calendar from Books and Giggles
Christmas Crafting Shopping List
With a calendar full of festive and exciting activities to do this holiday season, you’ll definitely need to stock up on materials. Here are a few things I always have around during Christmas time.
I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
- Popsicle sticks
- Jumbo popsicle sticks
- Washable paint
- Red and green glitter
- Googly eyes
- Sparkly pipe cleaners
- Liquid glue
- Red and green pompoms
- Faux pine greenery
- Buttons
- Sequins
- Christmas foam stickers
- Acrylic stars
- Craft berries
And that’s just to name a few. The options for a Christmas process art invitation are endless. Here are a few more ideas:
Christmas Resources for Preschool Teachers
Save time planning (and, really, you can use all the time you have around the holidays!) with already done-for-you resources from Preschool Teacher 101. There are lesson plans, math and STEM activities, and literacy resources just for you! Be sure to check out the membership options for even more savings. You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Click on the photos below for more information about Christmas resources:
Get Your Free Printable Preschool Advent Calendar
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So many awesome activities fro kids. A perfect calendar with lots of variety!
Wow! So many fun ideas!
I love all of these ideas!!
I love all of these ideas!
Awesome ideas!
Wow! What an awesome selection of activities for little ones to enjoy! ♥
Oh there are so many fun ideas here. I want to do them ALL!
love all the ideas we are going to try some x
What a fun selection of activities – We’ll be trying some of these out with our other activities this year.
I love the Christmas tree geoboard! Gets kids to look at geoboards in a whole new way.
What a wonderful collection of crafts and activities.
So many wonderful ideas!
So many wonderful activities! Love that popsicle stick snowflake!
Wow! What a fabulous collection of advent activities for preschoolers. I think my girls, who are 6, would love some of them too!
So many fun activities to do for Christmas!
Some really great ideas here, especially for the younger members of the family too!
Thanks so much, Helen! 🙂
These are awesome ideas but left me with the feeling that something is missing. Baby Jesus being born to save us all… The characters in that story could also make excellent craft ideas, let alone kids being familiarised with the idea behind it all. Christ giving Himself to us, the less fortunate as you put it with Dec 5th’s food bank idea.
Thanks for your thoughts! I chose these activities based on ideas already here on Fun-A-Day, and I also wanted to include ideas that a variety of people could use.
Lots of fun here for everyone !!
That’s the goal! 🙂