Advent calendar | Acts of kindness

A year or two ago I decided to swap out our advent daily candy to an act of kindness. I wanted the month leading up to the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus to be filled with gratitude for what we have and daily reminders to find little ways to give.

If you’re interested in what our little acts of kindness read check it out below. We bought this advent calendar and fold up little papers with the ideas written on each day. Each morning we pull that days paper and read the act of kindness. If it’s doable we complete it same day, if it’s not a pull a new one that works for that day and swap it out. Easy peasy. Here are the ideas we use:

1. cook and drop off dinner or a baked good to a neighbor
2. Leave a bowl of snacks out for postal/delivery workers
3. Shovel the neighbors driveway/scrape their car
4. Reconnect with an old friend
5. Deliver goodies to police and fire stations
6. Leave pennies at the pony at the grocery store
7. Give online to a new (to us) charity
8. Invite someone to church
9. Buy someone coffee (in the drive through)
10. Shop small
11. Compliment someone’s parenting
12. Bake cookies and deliver to neighbors
13. Buy someone’s gas or get a gas card and hand it out
14. Slip positive notes into library books
15. Donate to the food bank
16. Spread love online, likes, comments, shares etc
17. Do something uncharacteristically kind to yourself
18. Leave cash in a random mailbox
19. Send a friend a letter
20. Return someone’s cart at the grocery store
21. Tip excessively
22. Make care kits for the homeless and pass them out
23. Make a handmade gift
24. Facetime family

Want some more free ideas? Here’s a quick list: donate clothes/toys to a local shelter, have the kids make a craft and gift it to a local nursing home, give a raving review online to a place or a podcast you love, offer to babysit a friend’s kids for a free date night, pick up trash at the park, fill a shoebox for operation christmas child (you can do this online!), drop off goodies to your local hosptial/nursing stations, organize a food drive on nextdoor and pick them up and drop them off for your neighbors, let an extra car in the merge line, make your spouse’s lunch.

These ideas work best when the kids get involved, showing them being of service to others can be one of the best things we can do. Obviously this year some of these ideas may look different but many can easily be adapted for safety especially taking into consideration your local regulations.

Now more than ever our neighbors need us, we need our neighbors and remember that change happens at home.