ABC Animal Advent Calendar For Kids

Lean how to make a cute animal Advent Calendar for kids to count down the days until Christmas! This cute Advent Calendar has animals, ornaments and the ABCs and is perfect for little ones!

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Counting down the days until Christmas is so much fun, especially with a cute countdown calendar! I’m so excited to share my new Advent Calendar – an ABC Animal Advent Calendar! It is definitely not your traditional Advent calendar but is a fun way for little ones to count down the days until Christmas. Each day they receive a new ornament featuring a different letter and animal!

The printable ornaments are alphabetical with an animal for each letter of the alphabet. I designed one set of ornaments with the letters of the alphabet printed on them, and another set without – so you can choose which ones you want to use. Start the calendar with the armadillo ornament and end it with a zebra ornament!

How to Use the ABC Animal Advent Calendar

Starting on December 1st, or November 30th, and leading up to Christmas on December 25th, the little one receiving this calendar should receive one ornament a day. Follow the order of the alphabet starting with the armadillo ornament on day one and ending with the zebra ornament.

Since there are 26 letters in the alphabet, and only 25 days in December leading to Christmas, you can choose to start your calendar on December 1st and give two ornaments on one of the days, or start the calendar on November 30th. Give an ornament each day any way you’d like! You can hand the child an ornament each day or hide it in a room and have them search for it. Another idea is to hide the ornament on a tree and play eye-spy.

Hang these on a family tree, mini tree or create your own tree by coloring a tree on poster board and adding the ornaments with tape. You can also make them into a banner using clothespins to attach them to yarn.

Advent Calendar Activities!

There are fun ways to incorporate learning activities with this Advent Calendar. Each day (except if there is a day you give two ornaments) there will be a letter and an animal of the day. These are a few fun activities you could do:

Practice writing the letter of the day.
Make a craft related to the animal of the day.
Read a book about the animal of the day.
Try drawing the animal of the day using a how-to-draw book or a video.
Hide the animals and go on an animal scavenger hunt! Make fun DIY binoculars for a fun adventure!

How to Make the Animal Ornaments

This countdown is easy to make and only requires a few supplies. The entire calendar can be prepped before the first day of the countdown. Print the ornaments single or double-sided onto cardstock, cut them out and add a hanging loop with yarn. You can laminate your ornaments for extra durability before cutting them. This will make them more durable for little ones so they last longer.

Supplies Needed to Make the Advent Calendar

Printable animal ornaments
Cardstock to print on – I used 110lb white index
Laminator and laminating pouches
Scissors
Hole punch
Yarn, string or ribbon
Colored construction paper if you print single-sided

Start by printing the animal ornaments onto white cardstock. You can print the ornaments single or double-sided. If you’d like to laminate the ornaments for extra durability, do that before cutting them out.

Next, cut out all of the animal ornaments following the light gray outlines. Since printers pull and push the differently, there is a chance if you print double-sided that the gray cut lines will not line up exactly. If it’s off, it’s not off by very much. After you cut the ornaments out following the guides on one side, simply flip them over and trim off any gray cut lines that are visible.

Next, punch a hole in the top of each ornament on the gray circle and add a hanging loop. Use yarn, ribbon or string.

The ornaments are finished! Keep them in a hidden place and each day of the countdown bring out an ornament. Start with the “A is for armadillo” ornament and end with “Z is for zebra”.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! The files are available in my shop as an instant digital download and include the tutorial instructions.

I absolutely love making handmade Advent Calendars and Christmas countdowns. Here are a few of my other Advent Calendars plus a couple 12 Days of Christmas projects – they are all really fun to create for someone special!