24 Sleeps Till Christmas

A Christmas countdown for children of about 4 to 8, printed at home one sheet at a time.

Each day from 1 December to Christmas Eve there is one thing to do: a puzzle, a colouring page, something to make or a game. Every sheet ends with a paper ornament in the corner. Your child colours it, cuts it out and sticks it on a countdown tree on the wall, so the tree fills up as Christmas gets closer. On Christmas Eve the last sheet is the star for the top.

Who it is for

Families with children from about 4 to 8, including brothers and sisters of different ages. The puzzles come in two levels:

• Little Elf (about 4 to 5): bigger shapes, fewer steps, pictures instead of words.
• Big Elf (about 6 to 8): the same picture with more to read, count or plan.

Both levels of a day give the same ornament number, so two children can work side by side and share one tree. Every sheet has one plain line to read aloud, so children who cannot read yet can still do it.

What a day looks like

Print that day's sheet, do the activity at the kitchen table (most take 10 to 20 minutes), then colour, cut and stick the ornament. You need paper, crayons or pencils, child scissors, a glue stick and some tape. Nothing else to buy, and black-and-white printing is fine: the sheets are line drawings.

The longer makes (snowflakes, a lantern, a card, an antler headband and a board game) fall on the weekends of December 2026. A one-page plan shows every day with its time, and days can be swapped freely: each ornament keeps its own number.

The 24 days

1. Colour the two-sheet tree poster and put it up.
2. Colour by number, or by sums that make 6 to 10.
3. A reindeer maze in two sizes.
4. A letter to Santa: trace and draw, or write it.
5. Fold-and-cut paper snowflakes for the window.
6. A snowy village colouring page.
7. Dot-to-dot to 12, or to 34.
8. Word search: 6 words, or 12 in four directions.
9. Draw a reindeer face in six small steps.
10. Count the decorations; Big Elves answer three sums.
11. Two polar bears and their tree to colour.
12. A paper lantern to hang up.
13. A card that folds from one sheet.
14. Picture patterns, and number patterns for Big Elves.
15. Six gift tags to colour, cut and write.
16. Twelve kind jobs to pick from until Christmas.
17. Find 5 differences, or all 8.
18. A gingerbread house colouring page.
19. A reindeer-antler headband to wear.
20. A board game with counters and a paper die.
21. Picture sudoku: cut and stick, or draw.
22. A mosaic tree: colour by letter or by word.
23. Colour the fireplace; write a note for Santa.
24. Christmas Eve: the star for the top of the tree.

Also inside

• For grown-ups (in colour): how it works, getting set up, choosing a level, the whole of December on one page, and an opening page for each week listing its sheets, times, supplies and print-pack pages.
• Answers for every puzzle: both mazes, both dot-to-dots, both word searches, the counting questions, the patterns, both colour-by-code pictures, all 8 differences and all three sudokus.
• A Countdown Complete certificate and a sheet of spare ornaments.
• How to post a letter to Santa in the US (USPS Operation Santa, postmarked by 5 December) and the UK (Royal Mail).

What you download

• 24 Sleeps Till Christmas (51 pages, PDF, US Letter): the whole book, with the grown-up pages in colour, every sheet, the answers, bookmarks and a contents page.
• Print Pack, US Letter (37 pages, PDF): just the sheets to print, in day order, plus the certificate and spare ornaments.
• Print Pack, A4 (37 pages, PDF): the same sheets sized for A4 paper.

Good to know

• This is a secular Christmas book: Santa, reindeer, snow, trees and gingerbread. It has no religious pages.
• Print single-sided at actual size. The countdown tree is two sheets joined top to bottom, about 50 cm (20 inches) tall.
• Children will need a grown-up for some folding and for the first cut on the snowflake and lantern days.
• This is a PDF download. No physical book is shipped.