During Advent, we wait and prepare our hearts for the coming Christ, as we think about His first and second coming. Sometimes the season can seem so full of doing, that we don't even leave room for the waiting or preparing. I asked for your favorite traditions and resources and want to share those below, but while they are wonderful, we want to pick something that will help us as we get ready to worship our King.
-Make a paper chain and pull one off each day
-Premade advent calendars (they have everything from $1 calendars with tiny chocolates to creative ones like this Lego calendar)
-Ann Voskamp's The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: An Interactive Family Celebration of Advent includes pop-up tree, daily ornaments and devotional
-Focus on the Family advent calendar: This year's or check out older versions
-Jesus Storybook Bible advent walks through how the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, Mary's visit from the angel and Christ's birth you can find the free printables here or purchase Sally Lloyd-Jones accompanying Christmas collection including stories, songs and reflections
-Jesse trees are a way of telling the story from creation to the Christmas story. There are many versions including super easy color in options to creating your own ornaments to felt options. You can google for a bunch other options as well.
-Christmas activity calendar: check out Pinterest for all kinds of ideas. This year some options won't be available, so our family merged a bunch of calendar ideas together
- Color Your Own Nativity Sticker Scene This was a favorite when my kids were really young. We'd color just one character or set of characters a night and tell a little of the story. Sometimes it would feel too much to commit to something extra every night so we could pace whatever way worked best for our family.
-A Jesus Christmas: Explore God's Amazing Plan for Christmas is a devotional that looks at the serpent's lies in Genesis 3 and how the glorious truth of how Christmas beats it every time.
Maybe these all seem a bit overwhelming and intensive this time of the year. Try playing with a nativity set, reading your children's Bible through the story of Christmas, or teaching a few Christmas songs and talk about what they mean.
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