Okay, I’ve only got a minute. But time for y’all to fess up–what are your favorite Advent resources? The season is upon us–it begins this Sunday!–and I want to know what traditions, books, websites, etc. you make use of in your family.
So spill all of your Christ-centered Christmas preparation goodness right into the comments. We’ll all appreciate it!
We are keeping it simple this year, since we are a little overwhelmed with our whole house situation.
We took out our advent calendar–the one from Desiring God Ministries. I can’t find it online now. I know you have one too, Serina, but I’ll explain it for everyone else’s sake. It’s burlap material with a simple stable and numbers on the background. Miniature people, animals, manger, star, etc are attached with velcro in an area at the bottom with corresponding numbers. Each day of December leading up to the 25th, we read a little story (?) adding on a little each day and repeating the days before, so it’s really good for teaching the Christmas story. I’m sure you could find or make one.
Last year we bought a really beautiful olive wood nativity set. I’ll try to take a picture of it and post it soon. I wanted something that would look nice and would also be sturdy enough so that our kids could play with it. It was rather expensive–I think around $85, but I don’t think I’ll ever have to replace broken parts and it will be a special thing to have for years and years.
No tree for us this year because of possibly moving. Becca got to decorate Nana and Papa’s tree.
And I’ll be taking out a book pretty soon called “Long, long ago in Bethlehem: The Birth of Jesus” by Carine Mackenzie. I really like this book. The illustrations are wonderful and so is the text. I found it at Half Price Books a few years ago. Amazon sells it for around $10.
I think that’s pretty much all we are doing this year. Another year I’d love to do a Jesse tree, read scripture each day, find ways to serve others with our time and resources. We’re just taking it easy this year and doing what we can.
Can’t wait to see what others are doing. Especially if anyone has ideas for what they do on Christmas Eve and Day if you don’t open presents those days (we are opening our presents tomorrow). We want to make those two days special and Christ-centered, plus have fun family traditions on those days that don’t include our gift giving.
Okay, I’m really done now.
I’ve been checking everyday to see if anyone is responding to this question because I’m curious too. I did find an online resource that is basically just a calendar with scripture to read each day, a hymn to sing and a little craft (we’re skipping the craft). I can’t vouch for it at all since we haven’t started using it, but when I was searching online everything else I was finding was Catholic. I was really disappointed that with all the young families we have in our church here, the church isn’t providing Advent guides, I think that would be an awesome thing to do.
Anyway, we’re going to try this website. We also have four small candles and 1 large white one for our homemade advent wreath that we light on each Sunday.
My parents always used the Advent wreath at home with us, and I remember that sense of anticipation each year as I got more and more excited about Christmas Eve service, my favorite thing about Christmas.
Here’s the website I found: http://www.homeschooled-kids.com/advent.html
Thanks for your responses, ladies. I’m still sifting through them–good ideas!
Anyone else?
I’ve started a section on my Links page (tab above) devoted to Christmas/Advent. I’ll add as I find more goodies.
We have tried a couple things before; but nothing has really worked out. Heather made an advent wreath, and I’d like to do something on Sunday mornings at least. I am not sure if I will follow the link above for each day, but maybe some of the days.
We will attempt to “do” (what’s the right verb?) a Jesse tree this year for the first time. If you’re familiar with Resurrection Eggs it’s a similar concept (maybe Jesse tree came first?). Each day there is a symbol and scripture associated with advent. You teach the significance of the symbol and then hang it on the tree. There are many websites I found that have similar symbols and texts. I googled “jesse tree ornaments” and lots came up. We’re hoping it’s meaningful for our family.
The MOPS group made these ribbons and attached teeny envelopes to the ribbon, 25 in all. You hang the riboon and the envelopes on a wall and put a card in it with one Christmas activity. However; instead of the christmas activity I am planning on putting a Bible verse inside of the envelope to read each day that relate to Christ’s birth.
Several years ago a friend of ours gave us the book called Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. It is a storybook designed to be read during advent, a chapter each night and if I remember correctly there is a Bible verse at the end of each chapter. It is a very exciting story about a boy named Jotham who is separated from his family. His search for his family leads him ultimately to Bethlehem in time for the birth of Jesus.
Our boys loved this story even though at times is got very scary. I do think it might be too much for some kids. Even though our kids got nervous, they always wanted more. It was too exciting to put down!
We read this book two years in a row to celebrate advent and then I think it lost it’s magic because we had heard it before. There are two other books written by Ytreeide that are similar and perhaps we should give one of those a try: Tabitha’s Travels and Bartholemew’s Passage. Tabitha and Bartholemew appear in the Jotham book so it would be interesting to see how they intertwine. (These books have been out of print, but it looks like Jotham may be re-issued next summer).
Since we are not reading the book this year, I went online looking for suggested scripture readings. I also came across the website mentioned in one of the other comments and that is what we have been using.