Oh, I love Advent. It is a time so rich in tradition and feast days not to mention joy and anticipation for what is to come (Christmas). Each year I find that we change things up a little in an effort to find the perfect balance for our family of celebrating Advent and not getting carried away before Christmas is here. So there a some things that we have done for several years now and other things that are new to this year. I am sure as years pass we will find ourselves doing less new things and more just sticking with the things that work for us. For now we are still learning and growing as a young family.
This time of year we do many, many crafts. I do crafts with the kids for school of course but with the weather turning colder and less time outside coupled with the over abundance of great ideas for Advent/ Christmas kid crafts we spend a lot of time creating. The kids love it. I love it too, but don't love cleaning up the mess. :)
This is our Advent wreath that Dan made. He has made one like this every year for the last three years and it works great. I love homemade best of all. We light it before dinner and say a few prayers and let the candle(s) burn through dinner. Simple.
Our Jesse Tree, also in use for about 3 years now. The ornaments I made from a free
Internet printout and just colored them and laminated them. Each day we read the Bible passage that goes with the symbol. I love, love this tradition. One of my favorites for sure.
This is a new one this year and we are having a lot of fun with it. Each night after the kids are in bed Dan or I hide the three wise men from our
play mobile nativity. In the morning the kids have to find them. It is a Catholic alternative to Elf on the Shelf. Nothing wrong with Elf on the Shelf, just a fun way for us to talk about another aspect of the Christmas story. The wise men's journey, etc...
Our book basket, Advent/ Christmas style. I keep the basket full through out the year with a few hand selected books that go with things we are learning in school or a certain feast day we are celebrating, etc. We have so many books all over our house that this is a good way for the kids to focus on on subject. This year we added two books to the pile
The Gift of the Traveler (thanks Nana!) and
The Hat, from the library book sale this week. A few of the old standbys are;
A Charlie Brown Christmas,
The Littlest Angel,
Jacob's Gift,
The Nativity,
Bear Stays Up for Christmas,
God Gave us Christmas, Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey,
Jingle the Christmas Clown,
An Angel Came to Nazareth, and
The Night of Las Posadas. (Each title is linked to the Amazon page with the version that we have. I think illustrations are just as important as the story for kids so I try to stock up on books with beautiful pictures to go along with the story. )
This year I made this Advent calendar out of envelopes and put out Jesse tree verse inside. It was a lot of work and I don't really like it. It doesn't look good and the kids can't even reach it to pull out the verse. I don't know that we will do this next year.
There are other things we do, but these are the major traditions in our house. We try to take this time to be quiet and prepare our hearts, not just our home, for the coming of Jesus. Easier said then done of course, but that is the goal. I hope you and yours are enjoying your Advent. Until next time...
