My son is 3 years old and this will be the first year I’ve made an advent calendar for him. He has food allergies and he doesn’t like candy or chocolate so the typical store advent calendars aren’t a fit for him. I’ve started to put together some advent calendar ideas for kids like him who aren’t into sweets and I’m having a lot of fun with it! Our fabulous printable designer, Wendy, has put together some free printable boxes for us. I’ll share a link to those below.
Advent Calendar Ideas For Kids:
I have a lot of ideas that I’ll have to save for later years when he’s able to read but I’ll note them here for you. My little guy is really into LEGO, anything with wheels (cars, planes, etc.), stickers and Disney movies. The boxes are small so the options may be a little limited for what to put inside each one. I’d love to put a Hot Wheels car in each but (a) he doesn’t need 24 more cars, and (b) I don’t want these daily treats to be too big and take away from the excitement of waiting for his Christmas gifts.
Here are some fun ideas for advent calendar ideas for kids who don’t like sweets:
- single stickers
- LEGO mini figures
- puzzle pieces (start with a picture of the puzzle and then each day he can have 3-4 puzzle pieces to put together so at the end of the calendar, he’ll have an entire puzzle)
- little Christmas jokes
- clues for advent calendar treats that are hidden around the house (for example, a clue to look in the Christmas tree for today’s treat and it would be hidden in the branches)
- a secret message like “find the number 1” and then hide something like a book under the tree wrapped in brown paper with a “1” marked on the package
- miniature cars
- coupons like “good for one free hot chocolate with extra marshmallows”
- small ornament for your Christmas tree
- mini cookie cutters
- finger puppets
- coins for his piggy bank
What do you put inside your advent calendars? Let us know in the comments below.
Free Printable Advent Calendar Boxes:
Since this is a large file, I’ve split it into a few printable packages.
For more fun Christmas ideas, visit our special Christmas page. Here’s a sneak peek & what you’ll find on that page:
FREE Printable Christmas Charades Game
FREE Elf on the Shelf Printables
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Great post with wonderful ideas! I am in the same boat as you…my 6 year old has food allergies. I have 2 other children that don’t. So, it’s always a struggle to come up with an alternative Advent calendar for him. Yesterday, I found a Christmas tree print with numbers leading all the way to the top of the tree. He is coloring an ornament a day until Christmas. Will use one of your “treat” ideas too! Thanks!
Love it! Always looking for new Advent ideas. PInned it. Found your blog on Made by you Monday link party and started following on Pinterest.
Erin
http://theeveryday-mom.blogspot.com/
Great ideas! Our sons have similar interests so this is perfect. Thanks for sharing.
I did Lego pieces to a set and they got the directions at the end. I did smaller sets and split up pieces so when they didn’t have to wait till Christmas day. Example: 1st through 8th where all just pieces then on the 9th were last pieces with directions to build. Then pieces to a new set 10th through 19th and so on. Kids adored it guessing what they could be building. My kids guess way too easily.
I have done Littlest Pet Shop figurines and tiny My Little Pony figurines. Thanks for posting your ideas so I can try something new this year!
My pleasure, Kristine! Happy Holidays!