Generally I'm not a fan of how early the Christmas season seems to start in the stores. I find it inappropriate to have glistening lights and tree displays up in November (and even sometimes beginning in October). But this year I decided to take advantage of the early Christmas shopping sales going on so I can be finished in time to really enjoy Advent this year. Advent is from a Latin word that means "coming", and it's supposed to be a joyous season of expectation of the birth of our Savior. This year I really want to focus on preparing my family and my heart for Christmas. No frantic rushing around for last minute gifts! What would Advent be like if my attention was truly fixed on the coming of the Lord?
To prepare for the preparation (ha ha) I've gathered a few resources I'd like to share with you.
This is an amazing book. I've looked the past few years for a good family Advent activity guide such as this, and I finally found it! It's mostly for preschool or older children but I'm adapting a few things for our family this year and I don't mind "growing into" the book and using the other ideas later.
We have a normal Advent wreath for our dining table and we light the candles one by one throughout the season, saying new prayers each week. This year I also purchased a felt children's Advent wreath for the kids - no dangerous flame required!
Nathaniel has a cute Little People nativity set we bought for him last Christmas. I've kept it away all year and plan to bring it out at the beginning of Advent and use it to talk to him about Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Christmas story.
We have a great kid-friendly felt Advent calendar that Nathaniel can assemble slowly all Advent long.
I've always loved the idea of a Jesse tree. One of the activities in the Advent in the Home book includes leaving off your regular ornaments until Christmas, and making your tree into a Jesse tree for the Advent season. We're modifying the idea by having a three foot tree in addition to our regular Christmas tree to use as a Jesse tree. We will color and print off the ornaments included in the book, and hang them one by one every day of Advent. Each day there is a scripture verse to be read also.
I'm hoping these will be a start to some great Advent traditions in our home! Please share any Advent traditions you have heard of or are celebrating this year!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
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2 comments:
We just started doing a Jesse tree last year and our kids loved it! They were only 3+ and 1.5 then, but I was amazed at how quickly it became part of their memory in our nighttime routine. Cavan mostly like the hanging of ornaments but we now the Scripture verses are being planted now! ;)
We are planning on doing a Jesse tree this year too. We've never had one before, and I hadn't ever heard of one until this year I was reading some websites and came across it. I asked Mike about it (he was raised Catholic) he said his family never had one but he was always intrigued by them. We have a tiny little "Charlie Brown Tree" that we bought when we were first married that we're going to set up and use as our Jesse tree this year. I'm excited about it!
I also found a book at the library that has a bunch of activities that we're going to do. I'm excited Austin is old enough now that I can start teaching him these kinds of things.
Let me know how all your advent activities are going, I'd love to hear about them!
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