How can make the countdown to Christmas even more fun? Add in some kindness.
Paper chains are one of my favorite parenting “tricks” – they do a whole lot of good for kids (and I’m going to explain all that just not in the introduction). This holiday twist to make a Kindness Countdown to Christmas is changing everything for my kids and the way they’re giving back this year.
RELATED: Looking for a Hanukkah version of this activity? Check out the 8 Days of Hanukkah Kindness Activity from Coffee and Carpool.
My plug for why you need to do paper chain countdowns with kids
Time is a hard concept for young children. It’s abstract and basically meaningless to them. They can’t touch it or quantify it.
It’s why when we tell them “Five more minutes of play,” they still have a meltdown five minutes later. Five minutes, five days, five months – it’s all the same to a child.
We see this so much when we have important events, visitors, holidays, vacations and birthdays coming up. “Two weeks to Grandma’s visit!” results in 549 questions over the next 14 days about when Grandma will arrive.
I know you feel this.
The answer to solve this abstract-time-issue is simple: make a paper chain countdown.
RELATED: Need holiday gift ideas for kids that they’ll actually play with? You need my Best Toys for Kids gift guide.
The paper chain changed EVERYTHING
Once I started making these with my children, suddenly time became concrete.
They could SEE time.
They could TOUCH time.
They could find their own answer to WHEN an event was going to happen. Time actually makes sense when you are looking at a paper chain.
RELATED: Do you love Christmas activities? ME TOO! And I have a whole post of them!
Let’s make it a Kindness Countdown to Christmas this year…
As I was getting ready to make my kids’ paper chain to countdown to Christmas, I was wishing for a little more.
At Thanksgiving, we spend the whole month talking about being thankful and grateful – in part from this activity here. I missed having that conversation with my children each day.
I decide to turn our regular paper chain in to a Kindness Countdown and filled it full of random acts of kindness.
Just a little bit of kindness goes a long way
My goal was simple: have an open conversation about kindness with my children and teach them about kindness by modeling and doing kind acts with them all December.
Not a bad way to countdown to Christmas.
It didn’t take me long to come up with 25 random acts of kindness that could be easily applied and understood for kids ages 6 and under.
I wrote each act on a link of the paper chain and there it went.
RELATED: Want to try some Random Acts of Kindness in the New Year? Follow along here!
Real quick: you know how to make a paper chain right?
Super simple: cut strips of paper about 1 inch long (from the short side of the construction paper). Make a loop and staple it. Then add additional chain links be looping through the previous one.
Feel free to borrow my kindness countdown random acts!
This is what I came up with but by all means, make some random acts that fit with your family and vibe.
The more personal – the better – in my humblest opinion!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD MY RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS PDF.
It’s not too late to make a countdown to Christmas…
Whether its 25 days to Christmas or 12 days to Christmas or a week!
Making a paper chain does wonders for kids – and adding this kindness twist is EVERYTHING.
Will you make a paper chain this year?
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J says
So does each kid do the paper chain? like 1 day, all 3 kids do? or each kid takes one so youre making 3 chains?
busytoddler says
I do one chain for my three kids to share and we alternate who pulls off the link each day – but all do the kindness act together.
Felicia says
Love this! Thoughts for Chanukah AND Xmas?! Or is that too crazy? Chanukah starts dec 11 … would love to have a bit of focus on Chanukah and then Xmas. My only rational thought is blue and white up through Chanukah and then swap to red and Green for Xmas…
busytoddler says
Go for it!!! One of my friends celebrates both holidays in her family so the chain is a beautiful mix of colors!
Alison says
This is a wonderful idea! Any ideas on how to adjust some of the acts of kindness to be Covid safe? Thanks 🙂
busytoddler says
Hi Alison, That’s what I did with the PDF (vs the 2019 PDF). All of the options I listed are contact-less, can be left on doorsteps, or done within the home. You’ll have to find what’s best for your family – for mine, these are great covid-friendly options that keep up and our loved ones safe.
Ingrid says
Hi Susy! Love your ideas!! Thank you for sharing & helping us see through our LO eyes, feelings & thoughts. As parents we get caught up on “adult life” and forget to think about how little things, like the count down paper chain, make a difference in a child’s mind. I’m a mom of 3 as well (1yr, 3yrs, 5yrs) & of course we have our good days & our bad days. I was hoping you can share any suggestions/ideas/advice on how not to “parent” so much (yelling, getting upset, doing time-outs) & rather be a friend, guide, coach at times? Also, on how to be mentally present at the time of play with the kids rather than be thinking of the list of chores that need to be done (cooking, laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc). Any helpful tips will be taken into consideration 🙂
Thanks again for all that you do to help us parents engage & teach our growing babies!