You want to slow down and be more present during the holiday season.
You want to make Christmas memories that your kids will look back on with a smile.
You just want to finish your Christmas shopping before Christmas Eve.
Feel like you should be focusing more on spreading kindness with your kids but don’t know how to fit it all in?
The answer could be as simple as downloading a free printable Random Acts of Christmas Kindness advent calendar.
Sound too good to be true?
Then you’ll be amazed at the difference one little piece of paper can make in your family’s or classes’ lives!
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, coach, group leader, or grandparent–kindness is sure to be important to you. In fact, if you ask around you’d be hard pressed to find any adult who works with kids that doesn’t think kindness is important.
We all know kindness is good, but are you actively teaching kids how to be kind or just telling them to be kind and hoping for the best?
Really think about it for a second.
Do you intentionally teach your kids about kindness or do you just want them to be kind? We tend to work on sharing and feelings a lot when they’re toddlers, but after that it’s easy to fall into the pattern of just reminding them to be kind. Kids get older, life gets busy and somehow taking the time for intentional kindness gets less attention.
The easiest and most fun way I’ve found to stop and focus on kindness with kids is by counting down to Christmas with a Random Acts of Christmas Kindness advent calendar. Our family has been doing RACKs for last 10 years and we continue to be amazed by how much joy it brings us and others.
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from Coffee Cups and Crayons.
Each year we invite families, classes, schools, churches and other groups around the world to join us in using our free printable RACK calendar in their communities and the response has been amazing. We’re looking for even more people to join the kindness movement this December!
I know what you’re thinking.
“December is so busy! I don’t have time to add anything else into it!”
And with anything else I would agree. But, and this is a big but, not with acts of kindness.
There’s just something about joining together with your family or class and intentionally focusing on kindness that makes the holiday season feel much less stressful. Actually it’s more than that. Doing RACKs makes your days more meaningful and fun. There really is no better way to bond this time of year.
This time of year activities need to be easy and fun or they just won’t get done.
This is what makes the Random Acts of Christmas Kindness calendar so popular. I’ve taken the thinking out of it so you can get on with the doing!
This year we now have 3 free printable calendar choices for you.
This option has 24 acts of kindness on it that you can use as an advent calendar. Either follow along each day or mark off the ones you do as you do them.
If the thought of sticking to a calendar sounds too stressful don’t worry. I’m here to tell you we don’t always go in order either. Do what works for you. The goal is to add kindness into to your day, not stress yourself out!
The December calendar is a kindness resource for those celebrate a holiday other than Christmas, or don’t celebrate anything at all, but still want to join the kindness movement. Kindness isn’t just for Christmas!
This version has 31 kindness acts for you to complete throughout the month. You can choose to follow along day by day or use stickers or a dot marker to check off the acts as you do them.
This one is perfect for teachers! Complete the 12 acts of kindness together with your class or switch things up and assign the kindness calendar instead of your regular homework. No matter what you decide to do these acts of kindness are sure to make this month more meaningful for your students.
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from Coffee Cups and Crayons.
What if these RACK calendars don’t quite work for me or I want even more kindness resources?
Then you’re in luck!
I’ve been working hard to bring you a printable RACK pack. It encompasses the most common requests from readers and will make doing RACKs (random acts of Christmas kindness) even easier for you.
Here’s a sampling of what’s included in the RACK pack:
What is candy cane bombing? I’ve never hear of some of the acts of kindness on the calendar!
Some of the acts of kindness on this year’s calendar may be new to you.
Here are some links to help you figure out what to do.
These are great. Do you have any more ideas?
Yes! We have TONS on Coffee Cups and Crayons–we’re pretty kindnessy. Here are a few to get you started.
If you are a Facebook user make sure you are following the Coffee Cups and Crayons page so everyone can share photos and comments and cheer others on. It’s so much fun!
I will also be using the hashtag #24RACKs on Instagram all month long. Follow me to see what we are doing and use it to share what you are doing with everyone else. I’d love to feature you and the kind things you do this year.
Download a calendar and join us in counting down to Christmas with random acts of kindness. Intentionally focus on kindness more joyful and less stress-filled holiday season . Let’s build a community of kindness! Will you participate? Let me know in the comments. I can’t wait to get to know you!
*Calendar for personal or classroom use only. Email me for permission for other uses.
This post was first published on November 2nd, 2016 and updated with current calendars.
Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.
My kids had so much fun with these last year (especially the candy bombing)! I have already printed out a stack for my young library patrons to take, and shared to a librarians’ page. Thank-you so much for making this available each year!
Can I share this on Facebook?you should make a calendar for the year not just Christmas i want to be kind everyday but i need more simple ideas how to do this
Hi Kristen! I do kindness all year round! We have summer calendars and back to school lists. Go here for all my kindness ideas: https://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/acts-of-kindness/ Thanks!
Can I use the calendar with my Sunday School program, giving you credit, of course?Thank you so much for this printable. I look forward to it each year. This is perfect for the kids at school.
This is such a wonderful idea Megan! Thank you for sharing it. I work at a gift store that is going to have an event for elementary age children and read the book “Oliver the Ornament” . The author is encouraging children to share the Kindness of Christmas, by doing a kind act. Your calendar would be a great asset to this effort if I could have permission to print it off. Thank you for consideration,
Kaci
Hi Kaci! The easiest thing to do would be to email me at megan(dot)sheakoski(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks!
This isn’t really a comment that everyone needs to see. I just wondered if you could change the name of the calendar, since “random” can’t really be used to describe a detailed schedule of acts. Maybe just the Christmas Kindness Calendar? Or leave it that same. It’s kind of funny to see scheduled “random” events, I guess. Just wanted to make sure the title had been thought through completely. This is a WONDERFUL creation. Thank you!!
Hey Jess! The act of kindness is random for the recipient not the doer. We believe it’s important to intentionally work on kindness with kids, but doing acts of kindness for strangers or for neighbors, teachers, family members, etc when they are not expecting it is such a great way to spread joy!
What a great way to help us to instill kindness each and every day. Love the ideas! We are raising two of our 6 grandkids, Eli is 5 and Mia is 3.
I am sorry but I cannot find your email address to notify you that I want to use this in my Kinder classroom. This is an aw idea and I thank you for sharing.
Megan I think this is wonderful! This will my family’s first year doing it. I will definitely be sharing and getting people over here and in the kindness bandwagon. You are a very inspirational woman and you’ve gained a new fan. Thanks
I could not find your advent calendar. All of the ones I found start on December 1 and advent starts on November 27. Am I missing something?
I am a high school teacher and I am using this for my students. Thanks for sharing or making or all of it!
Hi Megan, I love your christmas calendar and would really like to use it. But as I am living in Sweden I would like to make a Swedish version of it to share with friends and family. Would you be alright with that?
Hi Anna! If you want to purchase the printable pack there is an editable calendar that you would be able to add them to!
Thank you I have bought a printable pack now. My daugther and I came up with a great idea how to use it. Her teacher went on sickleave two weeks ago due to stress and she will be away for some time. We thought it would be nice if all the kids in the class each put a personal message to her for each day. Each day in December she get to open the calendar and will receive a personal note that hopefully will cheer her up and make her feel better. Really thanks for this brilliant idea that you have come up with and I have already started sharing with friends and family and have seen teachers that said that they will definitely use it. Wish you a peaceful X-mas
We run a small educational toy store (Learning Express). May I put a link to your awesome calendar on our store’s Facebook page? I like to mix up our Facebook feed with pictures from the store and interesting ideas for parents.
Hi Lara! You are always welcome to share the link, just not the calendar jpg or pdf only. Thanks for sharing!
May I use this for my Sunday School class room? Also, some of the cgurch members might want to jump on board with this. I would like to post on our facebook the progress we will have and post the the bulletin board. I will keep your name on anything and everything that I use from you. May I go ahead and do this? I can also do #coffecupsandcrayons on all post 😉
Hi Yvonne! You can definitely use it with your class. I’m not sure what else you are asking so feel free to email me! 🙂 Megan
Lovely! If there are some that don’t apply – make up your own – great idea!I purchased the rack pack but cannot figure out how to print it. I emailed this question a couple of days ago but got no response.
Hi Linda! I don’t have any emails from this email address, sorry. Can you try sending it again? The links are emailed to you automatically after payment goes through. Check your spam folder and see if it’s there. If you use your credit card instead of a PayPal it seems to be taking PayPal a couple days to complete the transaction for some reason though! If that is the case and you need it ASAP email me at megan(dot)sheakoski(at)gmail(dot)com I can try and find the links for you! 🙂 Megan
Advent starts on Sunday, November 27th, not December 1st.Thank you so much for doing this again this year! We had a great time with the ones we did last year, and my kids definitely remember it. Especially the popcorn surprise on the DVD machine and taping change to a vending machine.
Thank you so much for putting this resource together for everyone. We will be doing this with our two kids, and I think they will be excited about it when they see it on the fridge when they come home from school today. My 9-year-old daughter especially loves to check things off lists, so she’ll be our driving force behind this service!
Love this calendar! One I have already done that would make a great addition would be donate gifts or cards or small bags of gifts to nursing home residents. I worked together with a group of people to spread joy to a nursing home in a low income neighborhood. Many of those people don’t have family so the holidays are especially hard on them. Thanks again. Great ideas!!
Thank you so much to whoever “Rack’d” me at Christmas. My van was sitting outside a popular restaurant and when I came out a Candy Cane with the slip of paper saying it came from coffecupsandcrayons.com. It had been a difficult day and week. As a widow with no family within 1,000 miles, I felt pretty lonely. Thanks to those who followed through and to you for your kindess in motivating others to help someone in their time of emotional need. It began to feel like Christmas after their kindness. The Candy Cane was delicious, too!
Hi Megan~Would it be alright for me to make about 50 copies of your Random Acts for December? I would want to pass them out at our “Children’s Time” at our Church.
Hello!
I would like to share this with my cub scout pack via our website and email blast. We have about 100 famlies in our pack. Is that okay with you?
Lovely idea! Sounds like you are heading for a perfect simple and cosy Christmas – the best kind. We just moved to Vancouver Island from the UK – so this is our first Christmas without family nearby – we are planning something similar, just us and the children.
Do you plan to upload a kindness a calendar for 2019?What a great way to help us to instill kindness each and every day.That’s incredible, thank you so much.
Hi! I wanted to download this but all the ‘links’ keep taking me to the main page. 😔Hello! You may need to update your Adobe Acrobat reader. When you click the large red Download Now button a pdf of the calendars will open in a new tab.
