8 Creative ways to explore Advent with your students

The weeks leading up to Christmas are a whirlwind in any primary classroom. Students are buzzing with excitement, routines start to wobble and it can be hard to keep learning on track. But that anticipation is exactly what makes Advent such a rich teaching opportunity. After all, it’s a season built around waiting, preparing, and reflecting.

Whether your school community has a strong religious education focus or you simply want to help students understand how and why different cultures mark this time of year, Advent offers a natural entry point into discussions about tradition, symbolism, and community. The good news? There are plenty of hands-on, cross-curricular ways to explore it that keep students engaged right up until the end of Term 4.

In this guide, you’ll find eight practical classroom activities drawn from the ClickView Advent topic page, along with tips for making this time of year meaningful and inclusive for every student in your class.

What is Advent and why teach it?

The word “Advent” means the arrival of a notable person or thing. In the Christian calendar, it refers to the four-week period of preparation leading up to Christmas Day on the 25th of December. During this time, Christians attend church, decorate their homes with lights and nativity scenes and reflect on the significance of the birth of Jesus.

Many Advent traditions have also become part of broader Australian culture. Think Advent calendars, Christmas trees topped with stars, and the colours purple and blue appearing in decorations. These familiar touchpoints make it easy to open a classroom conversation about where traditions come from and what they mean to different people.

For primary students, exploring Advent builds cultural awareness and helps develop respectful curiosity about celebrations that differ from their own. It also connects neatly to the Australian Curriculum’s Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) learning area, as well as Religion and Philosophy, English, History, and the Arts, so there’s plenty of scope to weave it into your existing planning.

Tips for teaching Advent inclusively

When teaching about any religious or cultural celebration, sensitivity matters. Students have different traditions, beliefs, and family backgrounds, so it’s important to frame activities in a way that promotes understanding rather than assumption.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Present Advent as one of many celebrations that take place around the world during this time of year. Comparing it with celebrations such as Hanukkah and Diwali helps students see common themes of light, kindness and togetherness across cultures
• Give students choice within activities wherever possible. If an activity involves creating Christmas cards, for example, offer the option to create a general seasonal or end-of-year message instead
• Use videos to introduce unfamiliar traditions. Short, age-appropriate clips let students see celebrations in context without relying solely on the teacher’s explanation

Creative and hands-on Advent activities

Ready to get creative? These four activities lean into art, craft, and hands-on making so they’re perfect for winding down at the end of a busy term while still keeping students purposefully engaged.

1) Christmas messages

There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about sitting down to write a card by hand, and for younger students it can double as handwriting and creative-writing practice.

Have students create and write Christmas or holiday cards to give to family and friends. For students who don’t celebrate Christmas, cards are just as meaningful when addressed to a local hospital or aged-care facility as an act of community kindness.

• Materials: construction paper, markers, stickers, glitter
• Extension: Instead of (or as well as) cards, students create paper ornaments or decorate foam shapes to hang on a class tree

2) Classroom Advent calendar

Why not build anticipation into the daily routine? A classroom Advent calendar gives the whole class something to look forward to each morning during December.

Using poster board and envelopes or paper pockets, create a large calendar with 24 openings. Each pocket holds a small trinket, an encouraging saying, or a fun class activity for the day.

• Materials: poster board, envelopes or paper pockets, coloured textas, pencils, tape or glue
• Example activities to include:
• Five extra minutes of recess
• Play a class game at the end of the day
• Bring-a-stuffed-animal-to-school day
• Example acts of kindness to include:
• Give a compliment to a classmate
• Share a positive note with a teacher or other adult at school

This is a great way to weave social-emotional learning into the festive buzz without it feeling forced.

3) St. Nicholas stockings

In many countries, the 6th of December is celebrated as St. Nicholas Day, a tradition in which children receive small gifts in shoes or stockings left out the night before. It’s a natural springboard for discussing the value of giving and sharing with others.

Begin with a short discussion about generosity. Then have students decorate plain socks, or use a shoe template glued to a small paper bag, to create their own stocking.

• Option A: Stockings are left on desks on the evening of 5 December and filled with small gifts from the teacher
• Option B: Students bring small items or lollies to exchange, similar to a Valentine’s Day card swap but on 6 December

4) Paper plate wreath

Advent wreaths are one of the most recognisable symbols of the season. This simple craft helps students explore what the wreath represents while practising fine motor skills.

• Materials: paper plates, construction paper (purple, pink, green, red), glue, scissors

Steps:

• Cut the centre out of a paper plate to create a ring shape
• Use coloured paper to make four candles and flames: three purple and one pink, representing each Sunday of Advent
• Create holly leaves and berries from green and red paper
• Glue everything onto the plate ring

After completing the craft, spend a few minutes discussing symbolism with your students. What do the candles represent? Why is evergreen used? This pairs well with a short clip from the ClickView Advent topic to reinforce the concepts visually.

Cross-curricular Advent activities

These next four activities stretch across English, HASS, and the Performing Arts. They’re ideal for upper primary students or for teachers looking to tie Advent into existing units of work.

5) Write a Christmas play

Get your students involved in the writing process by having them plan and create a class play to be performed during the Advent season. This ticks boxes across English (narrative structure, dialogue, persuasive pitch for their storyline) and the Arts (performance, set design, costumes).

• Possible topics for the play:
• The history of Advent
• The nativity scene told from the point of view of the animals, shepherds, or the Three Wise Men
• Christmas traditions around the world
• A comedic tale of St. Nicholas getting lost on his way to deliver gifts

Even a short, informal performance for another class gives students a real sense of audience and purpose.

6) Paper chain countdown

Simple, tactile, and surprisingly reflective, a paper chain countdown is a classroom classic for good reason.

Cut paper into strips and number them one to 24. Students write an act of kindness they plan to do that day, or something they’re grateful for, on each strip before linking them into a chain.

Each day, the class removes one link and reads the message aloud. It’s a quiet, meaningful two-minute ritual that helps students practise gratitude and keeps the countdown feeling purposeful rather than frantic.

7) Advent and Christmas around the world tour

How do families in Germany, Mexico, Ethiopia, or the Philippines celebrate during this time of year? This small-group research activity gets students thinking globally while building their inquiry and presentation skills.

• Assign each group a country to research
• Groups create a display (a poster, digital presentation, short play, demonstration, or any other creative format) to share what they learn
• Invite parents or another class to “tour” the displays

This activity pairs beautifully with the ClickView video Cracking Christmas, which explores fascinating corners of Christmas history and tradition.

8) Historical thinking

What did Christmas look like during different periods in history? This inquiry-based activity encourages students to think like historians: examining sources, considering context, and then deciding how to share their findings with classmates.

• Suggested research topics:
• How was Christmas celebrated during World War I? How did rationing affect food, gifts, and traditions?
• How was Christmas observed in different cultures or empires throughout history?
• Which modern Christmas traditions have no basis in the Bible? Students explore how customs evolved over centuries

Each group researches their period and then chooses how to “teach” the rest of the class: a short presentation, a role play, a poster, or even a mock news broadcast from the era. For background viewing, the ClickView series Bible Stories: The Life of Jesus and the clip on Mary the Mother: The Birth of Jesus provide helpful context for students exploring the origins of Christmas celebrations.

Keeping the spirit going beyond Advent

Advent wraps up on Christmas Day, but the skills and values it nurtures (empathy, cultural curiosity, gratitude, and creative expression) deserve a place in the classroom all year round. Here are a few ways to carry the momentum forward:

• Build on the research skills from Activities seven and eight by exploring other cultural celebrations throughout the year, such as Lunar New Year, Ramadan, or NAIDOC Week
• Keep a class gratitude journal inspired by the paper chain countdown. A weekly reflection prompt helps maintain a positive classroom culture well into the new year
• Revisit symbolism across different subjects. The work students do exploring Advent symbols connects directly to literacy skills around inference and interpretation, and it’s useful whenever you’re analysing texts, artworks, or historical sources

For more video resources to support your teaching of religious events and cultural celebrations, explore the full Religion and Philosophy collection on ClickView, or browse the Christmas topic page for extra clips and series suited to primary students.

References

1. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (n.d.) Humanities and Social Sciences. Available at: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/ (Accessed: 8 April 2026).
2. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024) Advent. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Advent (Accessed: 8 April 2026).
3. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024) Christmas. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas (Accessed: 8 April 2026).
4. CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) (2024) What Is the CASEL Framework? Available at: https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/ (Accessed: 8 April 2026).
5. ClickView (2024) Advent: ClickView Topic Page. Available at: https://www.clickview.net/au/primary/topics/1dNMD0j/advent (Accessed: 8 April 2026).