Our Christmas Scavenger Hunt Adventure + Free Printable Clues

This holiday season, our family decided to turn the days leading up to Christmas into a fun seek-and-find adventure with our very own Advent Scavenger Hunt! Each day reveals a new clue, weaving together the spirit of Christmas carols and the joy of discovery. If you want to join the fun, you can download these clues for free at the end of this post.

For the past few years we’ve set up a scavenger hunt adventure for our kids every Easter morning. It’s become a much loved tradition in our home, and something they eagerly look forward to each year. So, when I bought this cute stocking countdown garland at Target earlier this month and the stockings ended up being a bit smaller than I anticipated, I couldn’t resist creating an Advent scavenger hunt for our kids as we countdown to Christmas.

The premise is simple. Each day one of my kids will retrieve their Advent scavenger hunt clue from the day’s stocking, read it aloud, and then, together, search for their Advent gift. I had been looking for a fun way to incorporate our Christmas school activities into our daily routine, and I think they’re going to love this!

The gifts are nothing too extravagant – mostly craft items or printable activities that go along with our “Christmas Around the World” unit study, with the occasional small treat or toy thrown in to surprise them. On December 24th, the final clue will lead them to their Christmas Eve box which always contains their special Christmas pajamas, new ornaments, and a new book for us to begin reading the night before Christmas.

Some of the Advent scavenger hunt clues include subtle references to different Christmas carols, which I thought would be a fun twist. We’ll be using the Advent scavenger hunt clues to review spelling rules with my oldest and rhyming with my youngest, too.

A Closer Look at Our Advent Scavenger Hunt

I also picked up a cute Letters to Santa kit from Target and used one of the stamps to add some decoration to the back of each scavenger hunt clue. Aren’t they adorable?

I originally planned on rolling each clue up and tying it with a piece of twine, but my older daughter suggested using some clear rubber bands instead. Whatever you have available will certainly work.

Once we secured each clue with a rubber band, I put them in their corresponding stocking. Be sure to keep track of which clue is designated for each day though, especially if you’re hiding gifts in each location.

For an even cuter twist, you could place the Advent scavenger hunt clues in these miniature glass bottles for a “message in a bottle” theme. Since this was a last-minute project for us this year, we didn’t have time. But if our scavenger hunt adventure is a hit and we decide to do it again next year, I’m definitely going to try the bottles!

If you plan on using these clues, I do recommend printing them on regular copy paper. This will allow you to roll them up nicely, unless you’d rather fold them of course.

I chose to roll them so they’ll easily fit into each of the stockings on our countdown garland.

I ended up making 30 scavenger hunt clues, so you can pick your favorite 24 to include in your Advent scavenger hunt.

You’ll also find two separate versions to choose from. The first version includes references to either a gift or a treasure in each clue and is made to be used throughout the month of December, one clue per day. This is the one we’ll be using this Christmas.

The alternate version, though, asks seekers to find the clues, just in case you’d rather use them all in one day and lead to a “bigger” surprise gift. This might be a fun Christmas Eve surprise for your children!

I hope you enjoy this free gift! Merry Christmas!

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