Advent is the perfect for focusing on the joy of the season, but it can also seem really commerical. last year we started our Advent acts of kindness, an alternative advent for kids to try and refocus this time away from receiving to giving. We do our acts of kindness in addition to our other advent activities.
Our kindness mission statement:
- Spread the word – encourage other people to join in and become happiness heroes
- Have fun and enjoy making other people happy
- To be kinder than you need to be
We love Anna from The Imagination Trees Kindness Elves and this would be a great list to use for that. Alternately you could pick which works for you and add it to an advent calendar, pop them all in a jar (like we do with our Bored Jar) and pick one out each day or you can make a display with our acts of kindness by kids for advent printables.
This year we are also doing a reserve advent calendar.
You don’t have to give it to a food bank, you could donate to a family or person in need or a church. If you feel Christmas Eve is too late then give earlier or leave it until January when the food banks will be in need.
This is a great visual way of showing children that Christmas and Advent is about giving.
50 Acts of Kindness by Kids for Advent
- Donate a coat or jumper to charity (leaving a happy note in the pocket)
- Donate to the local food bank
- Make christmas cards for your neighbours
- Leave change in the vending machine
- Sort through your toys and donate any that you no longer play with to charity or your local church
- Leave chalk messages around where you live
- Sharpen all the pencils in the classroom at break time
- Write a letter to your sibling telling them why you love them
- Leave a beautiful homemade bookmark in your library book and give one to the Librarian
- Leave the pound in the shopping trolley next time you go to the supermarket
- Deliver cookies to your neighbours
- Tidy your bedroom
- Write a note and mail them to the houses with great christmas lights saying thank you for lighting up their house for you to see
- Sit next to someone you normally don’t at the lunch table and be nice to them
- Be a holiday helper – volunteer to deliver local christmas cards
- Make a bird feeder
- Send a care package to someone in the military
- Find three of your toys to give to the local children’s hospital
- Pass on some of your books to friends
- Give a lottery ticket to a stranger
- Donate books to your school library
- Leave out water for the birds
- Write thank you cards for your teacher, coach, Cubs leader or people that have influenced you in a positive way
- Clean up the area where you live by picking up litter. Make sure you wear gloves and do it with an adult.
- Help round the house without being asked to
- Donate pet food to a local shelter
- Put together a shoebox for your local church
- Write a thank you note for the bin collectors and post person
- Wash your parents car
- Give a homeless person a blanket
- Deice your neighbours windshields in the morning
- Take everyone in your class a candy cane or cookie
- Take poinsettias to your nearest nursing home
- Make a christmas card for the school receptionist
- Offer to help an elderly friend or neighbour with their christmas decorations
- Make christmas flowers for the reception at school
- Make a thank you card for the school crossing staff
- Cook dinner for your family
- Offer to pack the shopping bags of the person in front of you and behind you at the supermarket
- Invite a new friend for a play date or out to play
- Walk someone else’s dog
- Give out a complement
- Give out free hugs today
- Hold the door open for people all day
- Smile all day
- Let someone go in front of you in a queue
- Introduce yourself to someone new at school and chat with them
- Ring an elderly relative and have a nice chat to them
- Make a tree decoration for your babysitter
- Donate this week’s pocket money to charity
advent with 50 acts of kindness suitable for children. A great way of dealing with the commercialism of Christmas ” width=”870″ height=”5285″>
We would love to see your #actsofkindess. Please do share them with us on twitter, facebook or instagram using #AdventKindness hashtag. Keep your eyes peeled for this years new acts of kindness for advent printables.
Some lovely ideas and I’m pleased to say that we do about half of these thing through the year any way x x
What a fabulous list! Some of the are such small gestures but they’ll really mean a lot to the recipient.
Such lovely ideas, need to do some of these with my kids x
What a lovely idea Jen. i keep saying to my children that we should all do something kind each day, but somehow in the rushing around it gets forgotten. xx
Beautiful ideas, Jen, wish we could do them all!xx
Oh I love this idea – what a nice lot of things to do for advent I shall try and do some myself. x
Great ideas. I did my bit yesterday by employing a genuine young man to clean my greenhouse so he could earn the money to buy the safety boots he needs for his new job.
Some lovely ideas there that will really bring a sense of kindness to other people this festive season.
This is such a fantastic idea – little things mean such a lot. Thank you for sharing. Kaz x
such a lovely idea – will see if the kids are interested in this