Summer, especially if you live somewhere that gets a real winter, is often the favorite season for many. It’s time for vacations and no school and lazy days at the pool or beach.

Summer is the time to play with friends and ride bicycles around the neighborhood and have water balloon fights.

And for most of us, we spent the first half of the year counting down until summer and summer break and hot days.

We love counting down to summer break with this kindness activities.

Because with all the unstructured days of summer, it’s actually the perfect time to intentionally spread kindness to our neighbors and friends. 

And to make spreading kindness even easier this summer, you can use these Summer Kindness Notes.

Ways to Spread Kindness and Cheer During June, July, and August

If we want to raise kind kids, we have to give them specific and tangible ways they can speak and act with kindness more often.

Because being kind takes practice before it can become a habit for our kids. 

Summer is a great time to help our kids spread kindness to those around them.

You can Countdown to Summer Break with this Kindness Paper Chain or you can use this Summer Kindness Challenge to encourage one act of kindness per week.

You can also encourage more kindness with this Summer kindness Bucket List.

You can focus on volunteering with your family this summer with our June Volunteer Challenge, our July Volunteer Challenge, and our August Volunteer Challenge. 

Or you can get this Summer Social Emotional Learning Bundle that includes 3 summer-themed kind or unkind sort games and 3 summer-themed craft and writes: suns, popsicle and water splashes.

You can read a Summer Kindness Book like this one:

Summer Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness:

You’ll also love this I am Kind in Summer Emergent Reader that focuses on all the ways kids can be kind during the summer months. It also includes discussion starters and writing prompts.

But we also love using these Summer Kindness Notes.

They’re a perfect way to connect with neighbors and spread some cheerfulness and kindness. 

Related: Other Ways to Spread Kindness to Neighbors

How to Use the Summer Kindness Notes

1. Print out the Summer Kindness Notes on cardstock (download them below).

2. Cut out the cards so they’re ready to use.

3. You can write your name on each of the cards or choose to remain anonymous so the notes are more of a random act of kindness.

4. For the lemonade notecard, staple a lemonade packet to the note before delivering. If there’s more than one child at the house, make sure to include the right number of packets.

5. The card asking neighbors if they need help is perfect for anyone living alone, single parents, parents with a newborn baby, or elderly neighbors. Add your phone number to it and deliver it to someone who would most likely need your help this summer. 

Kindness is perfect any time of the year, but intentionally spreading kindness during summer is a lovely way to stay off screens, fight summer boredom and connect with neighbors in a way you don’t have time for during the school year.

Get them here. 

 

The post Summer Kindness Notes Kids Can Give to Friends and Neighbors appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Every day, our moms do everything for us.

And to be honest with you, this isn’t news to you.

Because if you’re reading this, you’re probably a mom yourself.

And you do all the things. You pack the school lunches, and help with homework, and know when the next spirit day is at school.

Moms juggle it all and even if our spouses are hands-on co-parents, we still take on the lion’s share.

The mental workload of moms can be shockingly overwhelming.

And hopefully, you’re doing it without mounds and mounds of mom guilt.

There aren’t many days that celebrate all the hard work we do.

But we do get one day.

Mother’s Day.

But because we only get one day, to make it truly our day and spend it the way we want to, sometimes we have to ask for what we want.

What to ask for as a Mother’s Day Gift:

Every mama wants something different to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Some of my mama friends want time with their kids, time with their families and breakfast in bed.

Some of us want time off, time away, and a bit of a break. Preferably with a cocktail and a massage booked at a spa.

But I think all of us would be super happy if our kids took a second and told us how much they appreciate us, how much they love us, and show us how well they know us.

Related: Read our I am Kind to Mom Emergent Reader

So we have to ask for what we want.

And we could ask for a nice piece of jewelry, or a massage or a new bag.

But we can also ask for the sentimental stuff.

We can encourage our kids to show kindness to moms. Even if that mom is us. 

So we can ask our husbands or family members to help our kids fill out a Mommy Is Poem (or Mama Is or Mum Is or Mother Is or Mom Is).

Because it’ll be a snapshot of how our kids see us.

How they think we think.

And how well they know us.

Educators- These make great Mother’s Day cards and gifts! Just ask your students which version works best for them (What do they call their mom?)

How to Use the Mommy Is Poem to Show Kindness to Moms:

1. Download and print the Mommy Is Poem (download it below).

2. Choose which version poem fits best: Mom, Mommy, Mother, Mum, or Mama.

3. Ask your kids to fill out the poem/have your students fill out the poem.

If your kids aren’t readers or writers yet, they can dictate their answers to an adult, to an older kiddo or to you.

For the line, “My Mommy is…” they can write a different line each time or repeat the same line to make it more of a poem.

4. Encourage your kids to color in anything they want.

This can be given as a Mother’s Day card or can be a Mother’s Day present.

I don’t need another Mother’s Day mug or frame or homemade pasta necklace.

But I can always use sweet words from my kids. 

That beats a cocktail and a day at the spa any day.

Download the My Mommy Is Poem here (and all the versions!)

The post How to Show Kindness to Moms on Mother’s Day appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

My kids love celebrating Easter. They love the bunny pancakes I make them, dying eggs, and of course the goodies the Easter Bunny leaves for them to find.

So they love counting down to Easter every year.

And instead of just asking Alexa every day how many days are left until the Easter Bunny comes, we’ve created a way to incorporate a countdown to Easter and more kindness activities.

Every day, as we get closer to the holiday, my kids and I do one of these kindness activities.

Related: Sneak in some kindness activities into your Easter Egg Hunt 

These Easter kindness activities are perfect for spring and include being kinder to the earth, kinder to neighbors and spreading some Easter cheer.

Why Should We Even Do Kindness Activities?

We are on purpose raising our kids to be kind.

We talk about it all the time with these 60 kindness discussion starters. We have them say this Kindness Promise and these Kindness Affirmations.

We read kindness books. 

And we have made Being Kind one of our two family rules.

We do this Spring Kindness Challenge and this March Volunteer Activity and this April Volunteer Activity. 

But we also have to inspire them to act. We have to encourage them to act with kindness. And most kids have no idea where to even start.

So we need to help them show their kindness by giving them ideas on how to be kind more often.

We use Kindness Elves to inspire them to be kind and we use these fun paper chain countdowns around holidays to spread a little extra kindness.

And we use these Easter kindness resources.

Other Easter Kindness Resources:

Encourage more kindness with this Kindness Easter Challenge positive reinforcement printable.

Practice being kind before Easter with these Easter Role Playing Cards. 

Get all of our Easter kindness resources in one place with this Easter Kindness Bundle. 

Hide these Easter Egg Kindness Notes in your plastic eggs during your Easter Egg Hunt.

Sort the bunnies into the kind or unkind Easter baskets to play this Easter Kindness Game. 

Read this printable Easter Kindness book about all the ways to be kind during Easter.

Supplies Needed for Easter Kindness Activities:

• 1.5-inch x 10-inch construction paper strips
• stapler and staples
• scissors
• gluestick
• downloaded the kindness activities (download below)

Related: Do your kids love crafts? They’ll love this Easter craft 

How to Make the Paper Chain Countdown:

1. Download and print the 15 Easter Kindness Activities Sheet (download below).

2. Cut the strips apart.

3. Glue the strips onto construction paper strips.

4. Turn the first strip into a loop and staple.

5. Link the next strip through the first loop and staple.

6. Continue until all the links are looped through.

7. Hang the Easter Kindness Paper Chain somewhere you’ll see it.

15 days before Easter, rip off one of the links and do the kindness activity together.

Because Easter changes dates every year, you’ll have to do a little math to figure out when to start this paper chain countdown.

Continue every day until you get to Easter and you will have done 15 Kindness Activities.

Want to keep going with kindness and raise kind kids?

Try our 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge or Kindness Tic Tac Toe.

And join our Raising Kind Kids Facebook Community.

We’d love to have you join our tribe of parents who want to raise kinder kids.

Resources Needed for the Activities:

• To send an Easter Card to a child in the hospital, click here or click here.
• To figure out where to donate filled Easter baskets, search for “donate Easter baskets” and your city name.
• To find your closest Ronald McDonald House, click here.

Click here to download the Easter Kindness Activities Printable:

The post 15 Easter Kindness Activities to Raise Kinder Kids This Spring appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

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While there is no one way to be kind, there are many ways to be unkind.

And when kids are around family they haven’t seen in a while or are expected to sit still through a long, formal dinner with food they’re not used to eating, or don’t react to a gift in an expected way, they can quickly get labeled as rude.

So to prepare our kids for Hanukkah, we can intentionally teach them ways to be kind and polite during December and give them time to practice these new skills.

Role Playing gives children a safe space to practice new skills they’re learning that may otherwise feel overwhelming if they were not given time to practice. 

So families and classrooms can use these Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing to intentionally practice different ways to be kind during December to set our kids up for more kindness “success” during the eight nights of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah Kindness Activities for Social Emotional Learning 

We could teach kindness as an isolated moment, but that’s not the reality. The real power of kindness is we can be kind every day, every month in our simple normal everyday interactions with others. 

So the best way to teach kindness is alongside other lessons and holidays: reading with kindness, writing with kindness, and Hanukkah with kindness.

And since kids already love Hanukkah, it’s a perfect conduit to teach other important skills: like Social Emotional Learning and kindness. 

We can use the holiday and the menorah and the dreidels and the gifts to our advantage to encourage more kindness.

And we can use Hanukkah and winter-themed kindness resources like these:

Winter Kindness Challenge:

Winter kindness Notes to pass out to friends and neighbors

Winter Ultimate kindness Bundle

You can play our Hanukkah Kind or Unkind Sort Game and write about the ways we can be kind during Hanukkah and winter.

You can read Hanukkah Kindness Books like these:

Gracie’s Night: A Hanukkah Story

Oskar and the Eight Blessings

Latkes and Applesauce

Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader

We also spread kindness throughout the eight nights with this Countdown to Hanukkah Kindness Advent Calendar

Or you can read this Emergent Reader: We All Celebrate Differently

And we can intentionally practice being kind in different ways with these Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards.

How to Use these Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards

1.  Print out the Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards on cardstock and cut them apart (download them below).

2. Tell the kids you are going to practice acting out ways to be kind during Hanukkah (sharing, turn-taking, giving compliments, using manners).

3. Read a scenario on the card such as: “When you see someone’s menorah.” The idea on the card is to say, “Your menorah is so pretty!” Brainstorm other things to say since there’s never just one way to be kind. (ie: I love your menorah, Your menorah is so shiny.)

4. Invite kids who are interested to practice acting it out. Hand them a pretend present and have them practice saying one of the brainstormed ways to react when they open a gift.

5. Practice with other scenarios/role playing cards. Have them practice complimenting decorations or act out how to greet family members and let them practice asking for the gifts they want in a polite way. They can brainstorm ways they can be helpful during Hanukkah.

6. As kids get more confident, invite other students to act out the scenarios and take on the roll of passing out the pretend gifts as well as receiving the gifts or greeting people they see in public.

7. You can also brainstorm things to NOT say that would be unkind or unintentionally rude during Hanukkah (Ew, I hate this dinner, I don’t like this gift, These latkes are disgusting, Why didn’t I get everything on my list?, Forgetting to say thank you if they’re able to, etc) You can act out the unkind actions and have them try it again in a kind way.

Download the free Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards here.

The post Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards to Practice Kindness appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Growing up in an interfaith family, I always loved December because I got Hanukkah and Christmas celebrations, decorations, and traditions.

And while I absolutely love Christmas, since I’m Jewish I tend to “protect” Hanukkah from the Christmas. During our 8 Nights, I try to pause Christmas and we enjoy the lights of the menorah and play dreidel games and eat all the latkes we can.

We seek out out Hanukkah community events and do Hanukkah crafts and host Hanukkah parties for our non-Jewish friends to teach them more about Hanukkah.

We make Hanukkah crafts like these and do fun Hanukkah activities like this Hanukkah Yoga. 

Related: 8 Things to Know About Hanukkah but Didn’t Know Who to Ask

And we try to bring some Tikkun Olam into our Chanukah days, focus on kindness, and teaching our kids how to be a mensch. And being an active mensch who helps others and gives to others is way better than being a Mensch on the Bench who just sits there and sings.

To help them understand all the different ways to show kindness during the eight nights of Hanukkah, we use this Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader Set.

Other Ways to Celebrate Hanukkah with Kids

Do you celebrate Hanukkah like my family does?

If you’re looking for ways to make Hanukkah more meaningful, you’ll love these 8 ways!

You’ll also love these Hanukkah crafts: Dreidel Sewing and Menorah Pointillism and Dreidel Spinning Art Activity.

We focus on kindness during Hanukkah with this Kindness Paper Chain Countdown where we do one kind thing a day for all eight days of Hanukkah.

We play this Kind or Unkind Sort game where we sort kind actions and unkind actions on the gelt to the correct dreidel.

We practice how we can be kind with this Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards that are perfect to practice with before family comes over on Hanukkah.

We use this I Want/I Want to Give Printable to help kids focus on giving rather than getting this Hanukkah. 

And we read these Chanukah books:

The Night Before Hanukkah: 

Hanukkah Lights: 

Hanukkah A Counting Book:

Where is Baby’s Dreidel?

Hanukkah is Coming! 

Sammy Spider’s First Hanukah

You can read Hanukkah Kindness Books like these:

Gracie’s Night: A Hanukkah Story

Oskar and the Eight Blessings

Latkes and Applesauce

Related: For 70 more book ideas and Hanukkah gifts, click here. 

And I love these Interfaith books if your family celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas like my family does:

Daddy Christmas, Hanukkah Mama:

My Two Holidays: 

My Two Grandmothers:

And we also read our Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader.

How to Use the Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader

1. Purchase and download the Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader Set.

2. Print out the version you wish to use: color or black and white,  and then cut them apart. I swear by my paper cutter I bought my first year teaching because I can’t cut a straight line.

If you use the black and white version, use these skin color crayons so students can color in the people.

3. Staple the pages together and then read the book together. You can follow up with partner reading, silent reading, group reading, or reading to a class pet/stuffed animal.

4. Use the Discussion Starters to further the conversation about how they can show kindness and be helpful during Hanukkah.

5. Students can write or dictate about Chanukah and how they can show kind acts during the 8 nights.

Happiest of Hanukkahs, and may your dreidel spin straight and your latkes be delicious.

Ready to get the Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader Set?

Purchase the Hanukkah Emergent Reader on Teachers Pay Teachers.

The post Hanukkah Kindness Emergent Reader Set for SEL appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

We focus on kindness every day, every month, but December is an extra perfect time of year to focus on kindness.

December is filled with opportunities to give to others which is a great since kids often focus on their wish lists and things they want from family.

One fun way to give to others is to make these snowglobe ornament craft or these  DIY light up Christmas cards and sneak in a little stem at the same time or making these Christmas coordinate graphing.

Related: We can help kids focus more on giving than on getting with this strategy.

So between making Christmas cookies and looking at Christmas lights and wrapping presents, we can take the time to focus on kindness with our Christmas Kindness Book and our Christmas Kindness Role Playing and these Christmas kids activities.

And we can make a kindness Christmas ornament craft to give away to others to spread some Christmas cheer like these You’re So Sweet and You’re So Kind Ornaments or these homemade cinnamon spice ornaments, this snowman handprint ornament, or these crayon ornaments. 

More Kindness Christmas Ideas

We love spending December spreading kindness to people around us, focusing on giving rather than just on getting.

We can make these Kindness Christmas Handprint Crafts and then donate them to a local nursing home, retirement home, or children’s hospital.

We can do one kind act every day in December with this Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar or this Countdown to Christmas with Kindness Paper Chain. 

We can figure out what is kind and what is not with our Christmas Kind or Unkind Sort Game. 

We can do these Christmas Random Acts of Kindness as we look at Christmas lights.

We can volunteer as a family or class or scout group with this Kid-Friendly December Volunteer Activity. 

You can make these melted crayon Christmas ornaments or these Kindness Christmas Ornament Crafts and then give them away.

Supplies Needed for the Kindness Christmas Ornament Craft:

• acrylic paint (white, orange and black for snowmen; brown, red, blue, white, green, black for gingerbread men)
• glue gun and glue sticks
• paint brushes
• small wooden Jenga blocks  (they’re often sold at Dollar Stores!)
• hole punch
• clear acrylic gloss spray paint
• printable notes for kindness ornament

How to Make the Kindness Christmas Ornament Craft:

1. Print and download the printable notes for kindness ornaments (download it below).

2. Decide which kindness ornament to make: snowmen or gingerbread men.

3. To make the snowmen, paint the wooden blocks all white and let them dry.

4. Using the back end of the paintbrush, create black dots for the eyes. You can also make dots for the mouth if you wish.

5. To create the orange carrot nose, use the back of the paintbrush to make a dot and while it’s wet, drag the dot away from to create the triangle.

6. Let it dry completely then spray with a clear acrylic spray paint.

7. To make the gingerbread men, paint the wooden blocks all brown and let them dry.

8. To create the eyes, use the back of the paintbrush to make a white dot.

9. Use the back of the paintbrush to create dots for the smile and buttons in red, green, and blue.

10. You can also paint a thin white line at the top and the bottom of the gingerbread man to create the “frosting”.

11. Let it dry completely then spray with a clear acrylic spray paint.

12. Cut the printable ornament notes out, leaving room to hole punch in front of the phrase.

13. Thread some string through the note. Add a drop of hot glue on the back of the ornament, near the top.

14. Cross the thread and push it into the glue and let it dry completely, making sure the note faces the same direction as the ornament so it can be read.

15. Spread the kindness and give away the ornaments to neighbors, to friends, or to classmates.

You can also donate the ornaments to a nursing home, or a retirement community or add it to a toy donation for a Toys for Tots or Angel Tree donation.

The post Kindness Christmas Ornament Craft for Kids appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Every December I dig out my Christmas and Hanukkah boxes and bins and decorate my home because I love everything about the December holidays. And one of my favorite ways to decorate for the holiday is by hanging up Christmas and Hanukkah art projects my kids have made over the year all over my kitchen cabinets.

It brings me so much joy to look at their creations all month long.

But not everyone is as lucky to have kid creations at their fingertips to decorate with. And so many clinical places in our community like nursing homes, mental hospitals, hospitals, and retirement communities have bare walls.

So for this December as a way to spread kindness, we can make these Christmas Handprints Crafts with our kids and/or our students and then hang them up in community areas that need a little more cheer and holiday spirit. And what a sweet way to spread kindness.

The residents or patients will enjoy the crafts as they get ready for Christmas and winter.

More Christmas Kindness Ideas:

Christmas Role Playing

Christmas Kind or Unkind Sort

I am Kind at Christmas Emergent Reader

Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar Paper Chain

Christmas Random Acts of Kindness

Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar- Our MOST POPULAR Christmas Freebie

Christmas Kindness Bundle

How to Make the Christmas Handprints Craft

1. Download the free printable templates (download below).

2. Print out the handprint templates you wish to use on cardstock or construction paper (pages 4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18, or 20).

3. Encourage children to color in the words and color in the pictures on the template.

4. Allow them to sign, trace or copy their first name only to the page.

5. Paint their hand(s) the color for the craft you’re doing and apply their handprint in the correct spot.

• tree (green)
• Santa (grey  or off white)
• penguins* (black)
• gnomes (grey)
• reindeer (brown)
• angel (blue or grey)
• snowman (off white, or grey) or print on blue paper and use white paint
• holly (green)
• mistletoe (green)

*For the penguins, make sure to spread their thumb and pinky out to look like wings. 

6. Allow for the art to dry completely.

7. Add elements to the art as needed:

• tree: finger paint dots for Christmas lights
• snowman: add eyes, carrot nose and hat (draw, paint, or construction paper shapes)
• reindeer: add eyes and red or black nose and hooves (draw, paint, or construction paper shapes)

8. Attach the art to construction paper to create a backing/frame to make the art sturdier.

9. Donate the art to spread kindness (ideas are below!)

Want more Winter Crafts?

You’ll love this Christmas Pointillism Art Project and this Winter Pointillism Art Project!

Countdown to Christmas Snowman 

Snowman Glyph Chart

How to Use the Christmas Handprints Crafts to Spread Kindness

1. Contact your local nursing home, retirement home, VA hospital, children’s hospital, or mental health facility and ask if you can bring by Christmas/winter art to decorate the waiting rooms/ cafeteria/ hallways/ patient doors, etc. to spread a little kindness and cheer and color!

2. Drop off the art at the front desk or hang the art for them with painter’s tape.

3. Take pictures to show your children their artwork hanging up!

4. After December, you can take down most of the art but leave up the penguins and snowmen to celebrate the rest of winter.

5. You can pick up the kindness Christmas art and send it home with students if you’re a teacher or you can leave it for the facility to use again next winter. 

Ready to Get the Christmas Handprint Crafts?

Download the Christmas Handprint Kindness Crafts Templates here!

The post Christmas Handprint Crafts to Spread Kindness this Winter appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Christmas is really the most magical time of the year. Maybe it’s the music or the lights or the gift giving or the family traditions or the cookies.

And it’s easy to get swept up in the busy-ness of the season and forget what it’s all about. In our family it’s about creating memories, giving to others, and kindness. (And maybe cookies too).

So we try to slow down by focusing on family time and connecting by playing games like Christmas charades or baking cookies and spreading Christmas cheer and kindness.

But it can be hard to remember to show kindness to others when the streets and the stores and our schedules get busy and frantic.

So it’s essential to take the time to focus on kindness and how to show that kindness to others. This Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader is a great way to showcase all the ways to be kind and generous and helpful and compassionate during the Christmas season.

Other Ways to Celebrate Christmas with Kids

We love celebrating Christmas and sneaking in some kindness at the same time!

We focus on gift giving rather than gift receiving with this I Want/I Want to Give Printable and with this Christmas Tradition that Focuses on Sibling Giving. 

We use this Christmas Kind or Unkind Sort to determine what is kind and what is unkind.

We use this Countdown to Christmas with Kindness Paper Chain and this Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar.

We spread random acts of kindness with this Christmas Random Acts of Kindness and use these SNOW Kind Winter Notes.

Want to spend some time learning how other people celebrate? You’ll love our We Celebrate Differnetly Interactive Emergent Reader.

If you want to set kids up for success on Christmas, these kindness role play cards are perfect to help kids be kind during Christmas.

Focus on kindness and giving compliments with these Christmas You Light Up the Room lights. 

And we read these Christmas Kindness books:

A Right Royal Sprout

Two Lists for Christmas: The Christmas Kindness-List

Secret Santas And The Twelve Days of Christmas Giving

How to Use the Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader

1. Purchase and download the Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader Set.

2. Print out the version you wish to use: color or black and white and cut them apart. I swear by my paper cutter I bought my first year teaching because I can’t cut a straight line.

If you use the black and white version, use these skin color crayons so students can color in the people.

3. After you staple the pages, read the book together. You can follow up with partner reading, silent reading, group reading, or reading to a class pet/stuffed animal.

4. Use the Discussion Starters to further the conversation about Christmas kindness and how we can show kindness to others during the holidays.

5. Students can write or dictate about how they can show kindness during Christmas with one of 2 writing prompts that are printed on lined paper and dot lined paper.

And then celebrate a very Merry Christmas full of kindness and lots of cookies.

Ready to get the Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader Set?

Purchase the Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader on Teachers Pay Teachers.

The post Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader Book for SEL appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

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.

Related: Are you an Interfaith Family? Get our 8 Nights of Hanukkah Kindness 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. 

Focus on kindness and sweetness with this Winter Kindness Gingerbread Craft and Write. 

Or really connect kindness with gingerbread with this Gingerbread Kindness Cookies Emergent Reader Set.

Make kindness a game and get kids to sort kind and unkind actions with this Christmas Kind or Unkind Sort Freebie.

Focus on compliments and lifting up others with this You Light Up the Room Christmas Lights printable. 

Practice different ways of being kind before Christmas with these Christmas Kindness Role Playing cards. 

Read this Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader that goes through all the different ways to be kind on Christmas.

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 this Christmas Countdown Calendar that Focuses on Kindnes:

• 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:

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

Related: How to Praise Kindness with this Hole Chart 

Some Items You May Need to Perform Your December Kindness Activities:

Day 2 and Day 24: Christmas Cookie Cutter Set

Day 4: How to Make Kindness Rocks

Day 8: Gingerbread House Kits

Day 12 and Day 23: Hot Cocoa and Disposable To Go Mugs

Day 19: How to Figure Out What Teachers Really Want

Day 24: Snowmen at Christmas 

Get the Christmas Kindness Activity here.

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