Okay, maybe this has been happening every December and I’ve completely missed the boat until now but have you heard of the Kindness Advent Calendars? I stumbled upon one on Facebook this past weekend and then found the honey hole after Googling them. Basically, it’s a random acts of kindness for the twenty-five days in December leading up to Christmas.
I LOVE this idea for many reasons…
*Next year I’ll create my own and make it super age-appropriate for our house. The possibilities are endless. Things can range from smiling at three people to letting someone get in front of me in line to drop off a goodie for a neighbor to tell a friend something you love about them. You can make it work for a two-year-old to a house full of teenagers.
*This doesn’t have to cost money, which is so nice during the holiday season. Most things I tend to add to our plate during this already busy season cost money. And let’s talk about that lesson for our kids…being kind is absolutely free.
*I’ve been known to choose too many daily countdowns around Christmas because let’s be honest-there are SO MANY FUN THINGS TO DO! But what would happen is we couldn’t do it all and it’d give me another reason to be a bit stressed during the season. Well, this is easy! And this year because I’m super late to the Kindness Advent Calendar train I literally screenshot one calendar to share with the kids. As we drove to school on Monday I told them all about it and gave them the challenge of giving one person a compliment that day. They all happened to have dentist appointments so when I grabbed them out of school I asked if anyone had completed the assignment. They had ALL complimented someone already! It gave us a chance to all share the kind things they’d said at school. I’m not tooting the Slaughter kids horn here…I’m trying to say this is just an easy thing to add this season that shouldn’t stress or bog you down.
*And if it happens to spread kindness in your community-well, that’s just icing on the cake!
Today, the Slaughters are being challenged to hold the door open for someone. See, I told you it’s easy, but hopefully we’re spreading some Christmas cheer and a little kindness wherever we go this season.
Have you guys heard about this? Have you been doing it for years and I missed out on this like I missed out on gaucho pants? If you’re like me, no worries-I’m adding it to my calendar to remind us all about this next year in November!
Here’s to spreading a little kindness around! Have a great day!
XO
Love this!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
This is such a great idea! I don't have kids, but I think I might need to do this myself.
Great idea!!
LOVE THIS so much. The other day someone paid for my food in the drive through. It was so so kind and made my day.
Today I'm excited to bless our awesome UPS guy- who literally has to lug 5 boxes a day (hello Amazon Prime and on-line Christmas shopping) to my door DAILY. I can't wait. He's so joyful all the time and brings my dog a bone each time.
I love the idea of this but maybe not for Christmas time. We encourage all of this on a regular basis but to make something like a 25 day challenge? I like to do it when things calm down and aren’t as stressful. But maybe that’s me! We do have the light the world advent coloring sheet and are doing a few things on it but no pressure.
I started doing this same thing with my family a couple of years ago 🙂 I just wrote a blog post about it 🙂
https://showmeandsweettea.com/2019/11/29/kindness/
Yes – check out pitterpatterart.com – She set this up for her and her family when she lost her mom and it is incredible!!
Looooooove this so much!!!!!
I have not heard about this but love the idea! I'm on board for next year too and start making my list now! Thanks for a kind (and FREE!) activity for kids of all ages =]
thanks for the idea!!! my girls have been wanting an advent calendar and I love the idea of this one!!!!
What a great idea! Love it and also haven't heard of it until now. Thanks for sharing!
Ellibelle's Corner
Love this idea! BusyToddler posted about this on Instagram yesterday. She had a paper chain to countdown to Christmas, and each link has a random act of kindness written on it. She also posted her list of random acts which I found super helpful. Love anything to spread some extra kindness ☺️
We are doing it this year! It’s our first year for an Elf, so when we visited Santa he gave them a letter saying that Santa was on a mission this year to spread the word of Jesus Christ and remind people of the true meaning of Christmas. Our Elf arrived December 1 with a letter sending my kids on a Kindness Mission for the next 25 days. I’ve printed out super simple little things like you said on cute cards and tucked them in the pocket of a Pottery Barn advent calendar. I’ve also collected some cute little projects, cookie mix, etc to throw into the mix as a little treat from the Elf that we in turn use to complete one of our missions. My boys are five and today was to tell a friend they are special. They could not wait to tell me all about it after school.
Such a great idea, thank you for sharing. ❤️
On Thanksgiving every year the kids help me make our kindness calendar. We roll over favorites year to year and add in new ideas too! We think up ways to bless family members, teachers, neighbors, community service workers, and complete strangers. Some are tasks we do together and some are individual. We have a lot of fun executing them day to day. I have learned to structure each week with a mix of super simple (smile at 10 people at school today) and more involved (bake cookies for fire fighters) things. We sometimes have to swap activities between days if “life” happens. 😬
Such a sweet idea!!