The Life of Jennifer Dawn: Christmas Advent Calendar Puzzle

The countdown to Christmas is on! Does your family have a special way that they count down the days? There are so many ways to orchestrate a Christmas countdown or advent calendar--opening a small present, eating a treat, or reading a book each day. The list could go on and on, and I'm sure you've seen dozens upon dozens of ideas all over the internet.

For years my family used the handmade Advent calendar linked here. Each day the kids would open a numbered tin to reveal a verse, pieces of candy, and biblical figurine--to go along with the verse. The verses would collectively tell the story of Jesus's birth.

This year I decided to try something a little different, though. We are going to use the Christmas Advent Puzzle shown below. The idea for an Advent Puzzle just hit me the other day, so I quickly whipped up this whimsical printable.

We are still going to read verses from The Nativity Story each day during our daily Bible time. That's a crucial part of our Christmas, but instead of opening the tins each day, I thought this printable might be a little simpler. I created and started it with the kids on December 1, but just now got around to sharing it here on the blog. Tis the season for busyness. But I'm loving this simple idea and I'm so excited to share it with you!

If you aren't already doing a Christmas countdown with your kids, it's not too late to try this one out with us. Simply download/save and print. There are two background options to build your puzzle on. (We are using the one with the woodland creatures rather than the plain background.) There are also multiple ways you could utilize this Advent Calendar Puzzle. You could start at 1 or 24 depending on whether you like to count up or down on the days. You could also put the entire puzzle together and take a piece away each day during the countdown to Christmas. I like the idea of building the puzzle up so the finished picture is a surprise to the kids. We put ours on the side of the refrigerator, and we're taping a piece of the puzzle on each day. Putting it on a magnetic surface gives you the option to use magnetic strips instead of tape to adhere each piece, but again, I'm keeping things simple this year. You could also laminate the printable to make it more durable. However, you choose to use this Christmas Advent Printable, it's a simple and interactive way to do a Christmas countdown with your kids.

It's free! It's super simple! And it's right here for you to print off!
Use the links under each image to pull it up. You can also right-click the image, save it to your computer, and print it off that way. Enjoy!