Sugar-Free Advent Calendar (FREE Printables)

You can now make your own sugar-free advent calendar with FREE printables to download. Have fun with this easy Christmas craft.

Imagine the surprise on your children’s faces each morning opening their special little gift and an activity to do together. Make this Christmas one to remember.

Homemade advent calendar hanging on the wall — How to make a homemade advent calendar – FREE printable bags and activities

You can download your FREE Christmas printables and advent calendar gift ideas. You will discover EXACTLY how to make gift bags, amazing gift ideas, and activity ideas – whether you celebrate Christmas in a hot or cold climate. It’s all here for you.

What is an advent calendar?

An advent calendar is a way to count the days in December to Christmas day. It can be a printed card calendar, numbered boxes with a gift inside for each day, or a boxed calendar with windows you open each day with small milk chocolate or devotional phrase inside.

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How many days are in an advent calendar?

Most advent calendars have 24 days, counting to Christmas day, but some have 25 and include Christmas day.

Do advent calendars go up or down?

Advent calendars count 1-24 up to the special day to celebrate Christmas day. They are not supposed to be a countdown calendar that would count from 24 down to 0.

What’s inside an advent calendar?

Each window or box might contain a prayer, a small gift, a treat, dark chocolate or milk chocolate, part of a manger scene, an activity, or a toy.

What are some unusual advent calendars?

Instead of a boring milk chocolate advent calendar, you could fill your gift bags or gift boxes with more grown-up ideas. How about a whiskey advent calendar, tea advent calendar, or a coffee advent calendar?

What’s inside an advent calendar?

A sugar-free advent calendar contains lots of fun activities, games to play, or small toys.

Children love opening an advent calendar each day, such as a Lego advent calendar or a stationery advent calendar. They are such fun each morning, as children pop open each window.

Having advent calendars that don’t contain chocolate but gifts instead, means the gift each day lasted longer than the 10 seconds it usually takes to eat a little square of bad chocolate.

But this year, you can make your own sugar-free advent calendar and reuse the gift bags year after year.

It’s quick to make and you’re creating special Christmas memories as you sit with your children and plan suggestions for the gift ideas and activities.

If you’re making an advent calendar for an adult rather than kids, consider making a delicious coffee advent calendar, tea advent calendar, or a fun brandy advent calendar. You can open a door and taste something new each day for the holidays.

What is fake chocolate called?

The chocolate that is found inside most store-bought advent calendars is usually of poor quality and has very high sugar. Some milk chocolate advent calendars don’t even contain real chocolate.

If it is not real chocolate it is candy. Fake chocolate is often called chocolate flavoured candy or compound chocolate.

The FDA states milk chocolate must have 10% cocoa mass (cocoa nibs and cocoa fat). White chocolate has often been called sweetened fat because it is simply cacao butter with sugar. But it has now been included as a real variety of chocolate as long as it contains 20% cocoa butter and does not need cacao nibs (the dark part of the cocoa bean).

What’s the advent calendar filled with?

printed paper cut and on a table — Add your kids favourite activities and treats

Each gift bag will contain a small gift and an activity to do together. I have included activities for Northern hemisphere cold climates such as making a snowman or going ice-skating, or for the Southern hemisphere warm climates such as going fishing or kayaking.

I love kayaking, having a picnic on the beach, or staying up late to see the Christmas lights (it doesn’t get dark here in New Zealand at Christmas time until 9 pm). We might even go camping in the backyard.

There are even spaces on the sugar-free advent calendar printables to write your own ideas. Ask your children what activities they would love to do with you.