Advent

I am so excited to be celebrating advent this year.  Having a toddler is so much fun and I love that he is able to listen and even interact in our family devotions before bedtime.  This year we are using the same advent devotion that the Winters used as kids.  The devotions come from the book Family Celebrations by Ann Hibbard which I think is now out of print, but you can order it on amazon.com.  It has devotions and crafts for kids for most holidays.

Anyway, you create an advent tree, you can make yours out of poster board or the suggested felt.  However, after making three of these advent trees (and having blisters from cutting a bunch of felt with regular scissors instead of fabric ones) I would suggest my favorite, painting the symbols on Christmas ornament balls from Hobby Lobby.  Get some craft paint and colored balls and you have some pretty ornaments you can put on your Christmas tree, a special smaller advent tree, or I think this year we are going to hang ours on the garland on the mantle. Of course the draw back of having pretty ornament is that little fingers can't touch them or put them up.  Since I already had our felt one done I may just use both.

Each day there is a Bible reading to tell part of the Christmas story beginning where else but in the beginning.  The readings take you through the Old Testament to the story of the birth of Christ.  There is also a short paragraph to discuss and questions to ask your children about the readings.  (These are going to have to be adapted for our one-year-old, but are probably perfect for ages 3+)  There is also a Christmas carol or Hymn to sing each night.

There are of course so many other options to use to celebrate Advent.  One of which is very similar to this, a Jesse tree.  You get a tree or some sort of chart and there are ornaments each day with objects on them to take your family through the Old Testament and family line of Christ.  These are traditionally made of felt and embroidery as well, but I have even heard of people finding the objects around the house to put on the tree.  If your children are older it would be fun for them each morning to know what object is needed for the tree and have them find something or make something that could go on your tree to represent the story.

Another thing our family does is lighting our own family advent wreath during our devotion times.  There are so many things that the wreath represents and if your church does one I'm sure they explain the candles each week.  But the basic idea is that we are waiting for the Messiah.  We are waiting figuratively for the coming Christ, but we are also waiting literally for the second coming of Christ.  Each week as you light more candles the lights get brighter as we approach the coming of the Messiah.