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Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

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This printable Advent calendar for kids has 24 daily Scripture Advent readings. Point your children toward Christ with this easy-to-make Christmas craft!

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

We had an advent calendar every year when I was growing up. It was one of those cardboard box kinds you get at the grocery store. We’d stare at the calendar just waiting for the moment after breakfast when we could punch open the little numbered door for the day and consume our little piece of chocolate before heading off to school.

Yes, we were self-controlled enough to make it through our Cheerios before tearing into our advent calendars.

Our chocolate-filled Christmas advent calendar was fun, and I enjoyed the countdown to Christmas. But I want Advent to mean something more to my kids.

I want Advent to mean something more to your kids too. I bet you feel the same way.

Christmas Crafts for Kids
See the whole series here.

Advent Readings

For Christians, Advent is a season of expectant waiting while we anticipate celebrating the Incarnation of Christ. Jesus, God the Son, took the form of a servant and was born as a man. He humbled himself in ministry to his own creation, dying for us. God has glorified the Risen Son and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:1-11)

WHOA.

Just take that in for a moment. That’s amazing.

You and I want our kids to celebrate the Advent season for real. We want them all to understand the wonder of the God who became man and died for their sins. I put together 24 Advent readings for children that will help kids understand:

  • The Christmas Story
  • Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus’ Birth
  • Jesus as God the Son

And I put those readings on a beautiful printable Christmas Advent calendar you can assemble and use to decorate your home. The Advent calendar has a Scandinavian design in honor of my maternal grandparents. God Jul! (That means Merry Christmas in Swedish.) Check it out:

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids

You can purchase the Printable Advent Calendar for Kids in the Thinking Kids Press Store.

I often get asked how to print Thinking Kids resources. Here’s my very best advice. Take it and adapt it for your own good uses.

  • Sometimes readers are concerned about using colored ink. If this is the case for you, there should be a setting on your printer that allows you to print in black and white. Printing in grayscale will still use some color, but it will come out prettier than black and white. (The colors on this are so pretty though!)
  • Print these duplex (double-sided) and have them flip on the long side.
  • I recommend printing on white cardstock so the banners will be more durable and they’ll stand up. This is my very favorite cardstock: Neenah Premium Cardstock.
  • You’ll need to cut the banners out so you can glue them onto your ribbon. I cut around them, leaving a small white margin. I don’t suggest trying to cut on the line.

Supplies Needed to Make Your Christmas Advent Calendar

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

You’ll need a few supplies to make your Christmas advent calendar. You may have a few of these items already. If not, these are all fairly inexpensive and will serve you well for multiple projects. Make sure you get ribbon that’s 1/2 inch wide! I used 2″ inch wide ribbon, and it was too much fabric into the fold in the banner.

 

Hot Glue Gun with 25pcs Glue SticksHot Glue Gun with 25pcs Glue SticksNeenah Bright White Card Stock, 65lbNeenah Bright White Card Stock, 65lbScotch Precision Ultra Edge Titanium ScissorsScotch Precision Ultra Edge Titanium Scissors2 Roll 1/2 Inch Wide Wire Edge Ribbon2 Roll 1/2 Inch Wide Wire Edge Ribbon

Assembling Your Advent Readings for Children

Five Solas Reformation Study Guide for Families!
Looking for a fun Bible study to do with your kids over the holidays? Check out The 5 Solas: Signs to Follow on the Narrow Path.

1) Print Your Advent Calendar & Cut Everything Out

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings
Print your Advent calendar banners on white cardstock.

This is a double-sided printable, so you’ll want to print it duplex with the fold on the long side.

Note: You’ll want to cut out all of your labels in advance. Your older kids can help with this task. If you need more labels, you can just print extra sheets.

2) Measure and Cut Your Ribbon

You’ll need 4 yards of ribbon. Add another yard if you want to tie a bow on each side or to have a long tail.

Fold your ribbon in half and tie a small loop so you can attach it to your wall or mantle. Fold each half in half again (subtracting your end trails and bow (if you added ribbon for that). Make a small loop at each quarter length point and at each end. At this point your ribbon will be divided into four equal sections with a decorative tail on each end.

I used small hooks to attach our banner to the mantle through the small loops I tied.

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

3) Fold Your Advent Calendar Banners

Each Advent calendar banner has a dotted line across the top. Fold the banner on the dotted line away from the decorative side toward the side that has the Advent readings. Do this with each of your 24 banners.

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings
Your ribbon has been divided into four equal sections. Each section will have six Advent calendar banners. Lay out the first 6 banners as shown below and space them evenly. You don’t need to measure the space between banners–you can eyeball it.

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

4) Glue Your Advent Calendar Banners to Your Ribbon

You will use a hot glue gun to attach your banners to your ribbon. This is a job for you, the adult, as the hot glue is really hot and you have to use your fingers. I tried using a table knife to push down the flaps over the glue–it worked reasonably well, so you can do that if you’d like.

 

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings
I found the process worked best when I glued the ribbon to the cardstock under the flap, then glued the flap over the ribbon onto the cardstock beneath.

Note: I’m using 2-inch wide wire edge ribbon in this picture. I thought it would be prettier for the end pieces, but it was too much fabric for the flap. Use 1/2-inch wide wire edge ribbon instead. Again, be careful gluing your banners to the ribbon. I’m sporting a lovely deep burn across my finger due to my 2-inch ribbon faux pas.

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

Display Your Christmas Advent Calendar with Your Advent Readings Facing In

Take a picture of your Christmas Advent Calendar and share it on social media with the hashtag #BibleRoadTrip. You can tag me as well! I’d love to reshare it. I’m on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also share it in the Bible Crafts for Kids community on Facebook.

Beginning December 1st, turn over one banner a day to reveal that day’s Scripture readings. Have your kids help you locate the Scriptures in the Bible. Take turns reading a paragraph each and discuss what you learned about the Incarnation of Christ that day!

Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings
I hope your family is blessed by the Advent readings for children. I hope too, that you’re blessed by our new Bible Christmas Crafts for Kids series here at Thinking Kids. I have 10 amazing blogger joining us for the next 3 weeks to bring you a series of fun crafts to help your family continue to focus on the birth of Jesus.

Joint the Bible Crafts for Kids community on Facebook!
Join the Bible Crafts for Kids Facebook community!

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Printable Advent Calendar for Kids with 24 Advent Readings

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Comments

  1. I am excited because my daughters love crafts and this would be a great way to incorporate the Bible into fun craft ideas!

    Reply

  2. Great giveaway! I’m excited for the crafts– kids remember better when they *do* something along with hearing God’s word. Love this idea!

    Reply

  9. It is always nice to incorporate different topics into all areas of my children’s lives. We are trying to teach our 4 and 2 year old the stories and meaning of the Bible and crafts are a perfect way to help them remember.

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  10. I’m excited because crafts are a lot of fun and these would be great to make with my daughter for our Christmas this year!

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  12. Crafts are such a fun and creative way to implement what we learn in homeschool. This will be a blessing to whoever gets it.

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  13. My kids love crafts, so I work really hard at not screaming, not taking over and loving what they make… Supplies are hard to come by since I don’t think they are “important”. I am learning to choose to enjoy them. The crafts. My kids are cool. 😂

    Reply

  21. We never do anything like this because I am not creative enough to come up with something fun. I am so excited to find the ideas here already together in one spot! My kids are gonna love it!

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  23. I love this giveaway! I’m so not a crafty person, but my kids love crafts…i love finding kid friendly crafts that they can do with clear instructions for people like me!

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  24. I am so grateful to have been introduced to you and your site. I appreciate how you are not afraid to go deep and high-level with information to children. I am excited to jump into your book about Martin Luther soon! My boys were quite intrigued after the short study we did.

    Reply

  27. Crafts make the Bible studies come to life for my children…Thank you for giving us great ideas for making the Bible meaningful for so many!

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  28. Every Christmas I have been trying to find ways to incorporate both Learning and celebration into the season not just for our family but for our homeschool. I think observing Advent is a great way to do this as we learn, anticipate and prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas. Having a starter set of craft supplies is awesome way to help make this a reality. I don’t know how many activities/lessons are put on hold when we discover we are missing or are out of something. So this will definitely help things run smoothly and get done.

    Reply

  30. I always struggle to balance our time during the holidays. My kids love crafts especially during the holidays, to give as gifts.

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  35. Our family loves crafts and this would be great fun for us all. I am already excited to put together the advent calendar! Thanks!

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  36. I am excited about this series since my son is just getting to the age where he can enjoy doing crafts and is also finally able to start understanding more about the Christmas story.

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  37. Thanks for this beautiful resource! What a fun way to share the message of Hope! Thanks for blessing my family and for the craft supplies opportunity.

    Reply

  39. Love your posts and printables!! Excited to download the advent calendar. Thank you!! Also excited about the giveaway ❤️

    Reply

  41. I am excited because we all love crafts and always have great Christian crafting plans at Christmas…and then we run out of time for most of them! This would help so that everything is on hand for us to complete the projects!

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  46. My daughter especially loves crafts. I am not crafty. I need all the help I can get. The fact that they are Bible based makes it even better.

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  52. So excited about the crafts and the giveaway! Thank you so much! I am exploring the year one sample pack and am excited about implementing this in our homeschool soon!

    Reply

  55. I am excited about the chance of winning because it seems like a great way to reiterate Christian principles in a fun way during the Christmas season.

    Reply

  57. Thanks for a wonderful ‘crafty’ opportunity! I am excited because this is a truly wonderful time to spend with your children and family or friends and create special craft’s together while creating new memories with them. We love crafts!

    Reply

  62. I am excited about this Advent calendar because I try to do one each year. I try to do a different style or type each year and as my children have got older I have run out of ideas for different calendars as I have done so many, so a new idea is great.

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  64. We haven’t done much crafting this year and I know my kids would enjoy it. Hoping to squeeze more in the next few weeks.

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  74. We love crafting at our house and encourage homemade gifts for friends and family during the holidays. This will make that so much fun!

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  76. I love new and colorful ways to incorporate daily scripture into Christmas, trying to keep the secular Christmas at bay!

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  79. I’m excited about this giveaway because I know my Sunday School kids would love to do all the crafts this would allow us to do!

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  81. I’m just starting to really get into crafts with my toddler and love it when I can use them to teach them about our faith. Will definitely do this advent craft.

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  82. I am always looking for new crafts to do with our kids! So excited to try out these Christmas crafts…to have fun and turn our hearts and minds to Jesus! Thank you for the time you put into these! 🙂

    Reply

  83. Crafts are my youngest children’s lives, lol. We love crafting in this home and often have loads of the kids friends over to do crafts. This would be a huge blessing for our children and help us stock up to craft with our friends.

    Reply

  96. I am not a naturally crafty person, so this sounds like a fun way to incorporate some crafts into our homeschool days.

    Reply

  99. I am excited to have someone else compile a terrific set of craft supplies that my daughter can use to create multitudes of projects!

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  101. My kids love doing crafts! I am excited about the possibility of fresh crafting ideas and the joy we will have creating them.

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  102. We love crafting, and we love learning about the bible. Putting the two together is such a great idea to help the stories come to life! Thank you.

    Reply

  105. I love well made fun learning lessons from the bible for kids- they need a good solid foundation that is also crafty and cute!

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  109. Excited because we do a lot of crafts during the holidays with the kids at church. We always need new ideas. Also, I love crafts!

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  110. I’d love to win this giveaway. Doing crafts with my children at Christmas is a good way to build memories and lasting and memorable Christmas family traditions!

    Reply

  113. I’m excited because my kids love crafts but sometimes it’s too much to get ideas all pulled together! This series should be helpful!!

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  114. To add to all the reasons others have mentioned (many of which I share), I am excited because your crafts don’t look like “everything else out there.” The style is unique.

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  115. I’m excited for my kids because they will be busy doing activities that not only help their creative and make lasting memories, but also provide an avenue for learning more about Jesus!

    Reply

  116. So excited about the Advent Calendar and all the other Christmas craft ideas! Excited about the giveaway as well… my kids LOVE crafts, and we are always running out of supplies (and don’t always have the funds to restock)!

    Reply

  119. My daughter LOVES arts and crafts of all kinds. She has such an imagination. Budgets often don’t allow for fun crafting supplies but she can be quite creative. This is an amazing giveaway.

    Reply

  122. I’m in love with the resources here and find actually too many that I want to incorporate. I’m excited about these crafts to help my hands in learning boys learn Bible truths.

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  126. My kids so desperately need a change of pace! We don’t generally do a lot of crafting in school (odd because I’m a crafty person) and this could be a really great change for us. Something different from the usual routine.

    Reply

  135. I am excited that such activites even exist! The pre-packaged crafts get old but creating our own would be awesome. Also it’s great to have activities to focus the holiday on Jesus!

    Reply

  136. I’m super excited about this giveaway! My kiddos are always creating something, and incorporating crafts into Bible Studies would make them stick that much more!

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  140. My kids love crafts, but I’m not a crafty person and don’t know where to start so I don’t buy much. This would give them a great variety to work with!

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  141. My three children love holiday crafts. I am excited about biblically based crafts so that we can focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

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  144. I am a Mom, Gramma & Great-Gramma and I LOVE having a house full of kids, and they all LOVE to come here and do crafts. They love to listen to Bible stories while we do them. I’m excited about this because it will enhance our play!

    Reply

  149. This is a wonderful giveaway!!! Who doesn’t like crafting?? This would be wonderful to have to get us working as a family!

    Reply

  152. As an art teacher and mom of a crafty Boy and I mean that artistically speaking it is great to find crafts that support what they are doing in his school. As the art teacher, I also volunteer at his Classical Christian school and would love to not have to scrounge for materials and donate the whole lot to them.

    Reply

  153. my ten-year-old can go through my stash of craft supplies in about 2.5 seconds flat here it is not even a month before Christmas and already I realized I have almost no craft supplies left for Advent crafts and holiday fun so yes we’d love to win this to restock and user with the holiday season

    Reply

  156. Great giveaway! My crafty kids would absolutely love this! They enjoy making a variety of crafts to share with others. This would give them more opportunities to share their crafts. Blessings to the winner!

    Reply

  157. My children love crafts, especially my son. This would be perfect for what I’ve had in mind with incorporating bible lessons at home. Thanks for the opportunity!

    Reply

  164. Thank you for the Advent Calendar as well as the step by step directions for assembling it. I’m looking forward to doing this with my children.

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  165. I am enjoying your site. You are one that I follow. It becomes overwhelming to follow all the wonderful sites but I have stuck with yours.

    Reply

  168. I’m excited about this giveaway because I know my kids and I would have so much fun working on Christmas crafts together. Thank you for the opportunity to win.

    Reply

  180. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My granddaughters love to do crafts with me and we love to incorporate Bible lessons into everything we do.

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  187. We love crafts! They are a crucial part of our schooling and help us remember important concepts and events. We are really excited about your Christmas crafts.

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  188. This came at the perfect time. I was just thinking about what to do with the kids that would be fun and yet keep the focus on Jesus this time of year. Thanks!!

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  199. With so much focus on stuff and commercialism, this will be a wonderful way to center on Jesus – every day! The supplies would be a much needed blessing to follow through. The lesson is much more tangible this way! Thank you for the guidance. 🙂

    Reply

  202. I’m hoping to do lessons weekly until Christmas about different Christian values. Crafts make everything easier! Thank you for the opportunity!

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  205. WOW! I really could use these supplies to have so that my boys and I can have some activities to do while they’re on break from their school work and I’m on break from mine!

    Reply

  206. I’m always excited to find crafts, studies and resources that help teach my children about the real reason for the season, our Lord and Saviour’s birth!

    Reply

  209. We love crafting through any holiday but Christmas the most. We love to paint whatever we can get our hands on. My son loves to hot glue whatever he can get his hands on. This giveaway is a crafters dream

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  213. Love crafting during Advent just to make the story of Christ more approachable and fun for them. I want this to become wonderful memories that they cherish their whole lives and then share with their kids!

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  215. I’m excited because we’re homeschooling for the first time and these crafts will be great learning opportunities for the might th of December!

    Reply

  221. Wonderful ideas! My favorite post from They Call Me Blessed is “7 Reasons we use Bible Journaling’. Thank you for the chance to win!

    Reply

  223. This is one of my go-to sites for activity ideas to use with my grandchildren. I am a former homeschooler and it’s hard to let go once the kids are grown..I still peruse homeschooling blogs and use the ideas with my grandchildren. Thanks for all you do!

    Reply

  225. The blog i read on they call me blessed was, “Angels we have heard on high unit study”. I need to go back and check out more of her posts because i really liked her site.

    Reply

  226. I appreciated the Angels We have Heard on High Study. We love hymn stories and especially love doing Christmas Carol stories around the holidays.

    Reply

  238. Advent is such an important time. It gets so easily pushed aside in the worldly prep for Christmas. We can’t have enough resources to remind us that it is our hearts and minds that are supposed to getting prepared for Christ during advent! Thanks!

    Reply

  245. It is so good to remember to treasure all the Christmases we have with our kids, and I loved that reminder. What a beautiful craft idea for Advent. I am sure my children would really enjoy it. 🙂

    Reply

  247. The Nativity Movie Unit Study post is so timely. We are planning to watch the movie for the first time this year with the kids.

    Reply

  248. Thanks for the great Advent project. We are always looking for something different. My oldest is 14 so sometimes I feel like we’ve done everything already.
    And thanks for participating in a great giveaway!

    Reply

  250. The advent banner is so beautiful! I love the style and colors and the whole idea! I am going to use it for next Christmas. Lovely!

    Reply

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