Our Advent Activity
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My family has never celebrated Advent at home. Sure I remember lighting the candles at church and reading the scriptures. I’d heard of Advent calendars, but never really thought to implement them into my life.
A lot of my fellow bloggers celebrate Advent at home. I felt inspired to start a new tradition by celebrating Advent at home with my little family. This is especially important to me because we do not have a church home right now.
My thought to do Advent was going to be put off until next year. December began and I still had no Advent calendar, and it wasn’t really in my budget to purchase one. Sara who blogs at Your Thriving Family really inspired and convinced me to go ahead and do Advent activities with my kids anyway. Check out her post, Too Late for Advent?
So, I got my idea for my Advent “calendar” from Homestead Revival. I used only materials I had on hand.
I started with a wreath that my Nana gave me this year. I was going to hang it up, but the poor thing was falling apart, so I decided to recycle it. I gathered up some ribbon and some hot glue. I took pieces from the wreath and hot glued them to the ribbon. Now, keep in mind I was attempting to do this project with a one-year-old climbing all over me. I didn’t get to the end of the ribbon, but that’s ok!
I made my “calendar” pieces out of greeting card envelopes. Yes, they are huge, but that was all I had on hand. I stamped the numbers that corresponded to the date on the outside of the envelopes.
Next I cut sheets of paper and wrote an activity on each. I sealed each activity in an envelope.
Examples of our activities include:
Reading different Christmas stories
Watching different Christmas movies
Making hot chocolate
Baking Christmas cookies
Having family Christmas pictures made
Going to look at Christmas lights
Wearing Christmas pj’s
We also read a scripture each day. I got my scriptures from Focus on the Family.
I ended up stapling each envelope to my “garland” because I don’t have any clothespins on hand. That means I have to remove the envelope each day and let Bug open it. I had planned to hang the garland on the mantle, but Sis can reach it and that’s just bad, so it is now hanging way up high on the bulletin board in our office/playroom.
Next year I will buy an Advent calendar, but this is working for us now!
such a cute idea!! I’ll have to try this next year when the twins are old enough to understand and participate in the activities!!
This is such a good ideal. There are so many ways you can do it. I have always enjoyed making family traditions and having the family to pass it down and around. Good job!!
Thank you! It’s a lot of fun!
I love the simplicity of it. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
It is so great you decided to fix up the wreath! If it survives (or even continues to change) that will be a fun family heirloom!