24 Christmas Kindness Activities to Raise Kinder Kids

Inside: Help your kids focus on kindness this December with these 24 daily Christmas Kindness Activities that can be turned into a Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar.

Every December, we hear about the Naughty and Nice list.

Kids get threatened with coal in their stockings, and we sing songs about Santa who “sees you when you’re sleeping, and he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.”

Yikes. Nothing creepy there…

But there’s a better way to encourage our kids to be on the “nice list” than fear or an Elf on a Shelf “watching” their every move this December.

We can help our children show just how “good” they can be by giving them opportunities to show their kindness every day.

In our home, kindness is a year-round activity. It can’t just be taught or focused on in December.

But the holidays have always been an easy time for us to remember to be extra kind to those around us.

The holiday cheer and Christmas spirit seem to make everyone kinder and more giving.

So we invite the Kindness Elves into our home to share Christmas kindness ideas with us.

And we use these 24 Christmas inspired kindness activities as a family to instill kindness into our daily December activities.

And as an added bonus, this Kindness Christmas Calendar creates a countdown to Christmas so your kids can stop asking you how many days are left until Santa comes down your chimney.

Why Kindness Activities Are Essential

Raising kind kids is so important to us, we made kindness one of our only two family rules.

We encourage more kindness by talking about kindness with these 60 Kindness Discussion Starters and these Skittles Games.

We model kindness and help our kids perform simple, normal, everyday acts of kindness with this Scavenger Hunt.

And we praise their kindness with these Kindness Hole charts.

But the reason we focus on kindness year-round is because when my kids are kind and share their kindness with the world around them, it not only makes the world a better place, it makes them better people.

And science has proven that people who go out of their way to be kind to others out of the goodness of their hearts, without expecting anything in return, are happier people.

And that’s a gift that keeps on giving back to us.

Kindness During December

Of course, kindness needs to happen year-round. But in December with all the wish lists and craziness of that comes with the holidays, it’s also the perfect time to slow down a bit to intentionally focus on kindness.

If you want a printable calendar to countdown to Christmas, you’ll love our 24 Random Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar.

You’ll also love our Christmas Lights Random Acts of Kindness for Neighbors. It’s perfect if you love Christmas lights.

Want to help your kids focus more on giving than on receiving? This is our favorite Christmas tradition that helps siblings focus on each other rather than on what they’re getting from others.

We also skip the Elf on the Shelf and instead invite the Kindness Elves into our home. They bring kindness ideas all through December.

Celebrate Hanukkah? Here are our 8 Nights of Kindness for Hanukkah Countdown.

And we also use this paper countdown calendar to focus on kindness each day of December.

Materials Needed to Make these Kindness Christmas Activities:

24 red and green construction paper strips, 1.5 inches by 12 inches
scissors
glue stick
stapler
Downloaded Christmas Kindness Activity Strips (download it at the bottom)

How to Make a Kindness Christmas Advent Calendar:

1. Download and print the 24 Christmas Kindness activities (click the link at the bottom of this article)

2. Using kid scissors, cut the kindness activities on the dotted lines.

3. Cut red and green construction paper into 1 inch by 8.5-inch strips.

4. Glue each kindness activity on a strip of construction paper. We glued ours in a red-green-red pattern.

Your kids can color or decorate each strip if they wish to.

5. Start with the Day 1 Kindness activity and staple the strip into a loop.

6. Thread the Day 2 kindness activity through the first loop and staple it. You can staple the chain so the kindness activity is on the outside of the chain or on the inside like we did.

7. Continue threading each activity through the chain in order.

How to Use the Kindness Christmas Calendar Activities:

Hang the Kindness Activity Chain somewhere in your home where you’ll see it every day.
On the morning of December 1st, rip the first chain off.
Read the activity with your children and complete the kindness activity together.
Continue throughout the month of December, and rip off each day’s kindness activity and work on it with your children.
Celebrate and praise your children’s kindness each day and remind them why it’s so important for them to be kind.