This Twelve Days of Christmas gift idea is easy to put together with free printable stories, a printable poem and printable numbered gift tags. Each day leading up to Christmas, read a heartwarming story and open the coordinating wrapped treat.
If you’re looking for a great way to add some meaning back into your Christmas season, or if you need a care package to mail to someone far away, this Twelve Days of Christmas Stories is the perfect gift idea! Basically, you print out a bunch of Christmas stories and buy little goodies that go along with each story. Each treat is individually wrapped and labeled and then each day during the twelve days before Christmas, you open one treat and eat it while you read the story! Fun, right?
Here are all of the stories and the coordinating treats: (affiliate links)
Day 1: A Christmas Family (red envelope filled with chocolate coins)
Day 2: Rudolph—That Amazing Reindeer (reindeer marshmallows or “muddy reindeer”)
Day 3: An Older Brother’s Gift (candy book)
Day 4: The Other Wise Man (candy ring “jewels”)
Day 5: Christmas Day In The Morning (cow tales)
Day 6: In Shepherd’s Field (pooping sheep)
Day 7: The Christmas Orange (chocolate orange)
Day 8: A Christmas Gift For Jesus (chocolate dollars)
Day 9: Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect (Peep Christmas trees)
Day 10: Christmas On The Rhine (gingerbread men or gingerbread Peeps)
Day 11: A Brother Like That (race car candies or Hot Wheels fruit snacks)
Day 12: The Legend of the Candy Cane (candy canes)
Extra Story: The Legend of the First Christmas Bell (chocolate bell candies)
I searched all around town to find coordinating candies. I had the best luck at places like Rite-Aid, Shopko, Dollar Tree, and local grocery stores. Big stores like Wal-Mart just don’t carry as many unique candies. I’ve linked to each of the treats on Amazon so you can see what the packages look like, but their prices seemed a little high to me. I’d suggest buying them locally.
I wrapped each candy individually, rolled up the story for that day and attached a tag that says what day it is supposed to be opened.
There are also matching numbered tags to tie to each present so it’s easy to tell which present goes with which story.
Download all of the printable files here.
Note: Most school districts and many employers block access to Google Drive, so if the files won’t open for you, this might be why. Try downloading them again at home.
Thank you so much for this! Our ward is doing a service project for a recent convert missionary who just left from our ward. We are sending him monthly packages. I especially loved this idea. And thank you for the beautiful printables!
You're welcome! This is a great gift for missionaries. It sounds like you've got a great ward if they are taking such care with that missionary. 🙂
For some reason I cannot get the beautiful tags to print! The poem did just fine. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions? I love this – thank you so much for putting it all together!
-Stephanie
Oh no Stephanie! I'm not sure what the problem is, but send me an email and I will send you the file. jennifer @ thecraftpatchblog (dot) com
I was hoping to get the information for this. The links don't seem to open. I wondered if this was something that you still had the information for?
The links work just fine for me, I'm so sorry they were giving you trouble. Try entering the url's:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B68a5pOboyV6YlhCT2NOUndXMm8/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B68a5pOboyV6NUJ6M25leHB6WTA/view
Let me know if that works for you!
I still cannot get it to open. I don't know if its my web browser that I am using. Is there any way you can email it to me shur86@yahoo.com Thank you for everything. This seems like a super cute idea!!
Sure, I'll email it to you. But most of the time when people can't open things, it's because they are at work and their ISP blocks it.
Is there anyway you would message the word document version – I am happy to pay. I am going to do this for six different people/families and it's just from me so I need to change the "we" to "I".
Also is there anyway to get the word document of the stories. I notice some grammar edit errors in several of the stories. I am happy to edit them and send them back to you?! also, happy to pay. Very excited – thank you!
Hi Colee, unfortunately the original documents were on my old laptop that died. All I have left is what's available to download!
when I click the link I only get the poem and the tags but no stories. Is there a way to get these stories too?
The stories are there too. There are three files in the folder.
Jennifer may I ask you where you were able to find the Rudolf story. I am wondering if there is an author or some kind of reference. I just love this story and plan to share it with my family this Christmas eve as I have been doing with my Cub Scouts for the past few years. This story has details I have not found in my search in years past. Just curious. Thanks for sharing. I love this entire 12 days!
Mary, I’m so sorry I don’t really have an answer for you. I collected these stories over several years and the original publish date for the blog post is way back in 2009. I just don’t know where this story came from. I’m sorry.
I remember you did this for your brother’s family two years and had a separate set of stories for the second year? I am wanting to do this for my sister again and I’m looking for the second round of stories. I can’t seem to find them…any ideas? Thanks for sharing your creativity!
Hi Natalie! Wow, you must be a long time follower. I’m surprised you remember that. Thank you for your support over the years! The first year I gave it to one sibling and the second year I gave it to a different sibling, so unfortunately, I didn’t gather new stories. I just had a hard time finding the same treats so I had to adjust things a bit.