I’m so excited for our advent celebration this year! Annie is really old enough now to start enjoying our family activities – and she can more actively participate. She had SO much fun last year so I know this year she will have a hard time containing herself. 🙂
For those of you who are newer readers, each year our family celebrates the Advent season by doing a different daily family activity. We chose to do this instead of giving a gift each day because we wanted to teach our children that the Christmas season isn’t really about gifts.
We do some simple and easy activities and then some that take more effort. The point is for us to enjoy time together and to make memories. Traditions are very important to me.
You don’t have to make this a difficult thing either – simple things are sometimes the best. Obviously, activities will vary based on the age of your children. But that’s the funnest part! Each year will also vary so your kids don’t quite know what to expect. 😉 They’ll just look forward to the tradition of family time together.
It doesn’t take a fancy calendar either! Mine is from Amazon and it works just fine. There are all sorts of DIY projects for them on Pinterest. Or you can check out my personal favorite from Intentional by Grace: An Advent Calendar for Broke People Who Line Dry Their Clothes.
A few examples of our family activities:
-Gingerbread house (that I buy on clearance the year before)
-Family photo
-Dinner by candlelight
-A drive to look at Christmas lights around the town
-Cookies for the mail man
-Bless someone anonymously
This year I’m excited because I bought a new family devotional for us. It’s called Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room: Daily Family Devotions for Advent. I was just using print outs before, so it’s nice to have a real book this year. Each night we do our devotional together before putting Annie to bed.
I have enjoyed putting our family photos of each activity on Facebook for the past two years. We enjoy celebrating with you guys. 🙂 This year I’ll also be posting them on Twitter. Follow along and celebrate with us!
Oh wow! Thanks for the calendar link. 🙂 I was ready to click through to see what it was and saw my own post! haha! You’re sweet.
And oh my goodness, I’m excited about Advent too. We do Advent Activities instead of gifts and treats as well. Samuel is old enough to participate, but not quite old enough to really GET it just yet. But we do plan on having LOTS of fun together. What a gift family is!
He’ll remember that fun! 🙂 If in nothing else than photos….because I know you’re a photo lovin’ bunch.
Two things, first of all, I thought I was the only one who buys the gingerbread house kit after Christmas and saves it for the next year!? Lol. Also, if you don’t mind, I wanted to share a link to an awesome resource that I found through the homeschool freebie website. It’s an Advent study ebook for the family. It’s available now for free download so I encourage your readers to check it out! I really liked it, especially because this is a new tradition for my family, so it was a great help. Thank you for sharing your great ideas! Blessings to you! The link to the Ebook is below…
http://www.grace-and-glory.net/2012/11/24/advent-is-coming/
Thank you for sharing, Myra! 🙂 And no, you’re not the only one….we don’t eat it, so who cares if it’s a year old? LOL
We’re going to use the Christmas Angel (http://www.yourchristmasangel.com/) for the first time this year. I love how it emphasizes serving others during the Christmas season.
Serving others is one of my favorite parts of the entire season! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! Our family is starting a tradition of doing an advent wreath and a Jesse tree this year. I want to start doing an advent calendar next year – one thing at a time, I’ve decided. I’m going to be blogging about advent this week, and I’ll add a link to this great post!
Thank you, Sarah! I’m honored. 🙂
We have used the Jesse Tree Advent for years now (we have a 7, 5, and 3 year old). I enjoy the waiting and the kids love the homemade decorations that they remember from year’s past. Thanks for sharing your ideas!!
I have several friends that do the Jesse tree. I think it’s awesome!
Okay, I have a question….and it’s probably strange but here goes….
Growing up I had an advent calendar much like the one in the picture…a simple mouse that we moved from day to day until we got to the 24th.
The new one I just bought is different. There are 24 pieces of nativity that create the birth picture so my question is this….. do we remove pieces of the scene every day or do we add pieces to the scene every day.
I know, not earth shattering but it’s bugging me!! 🙂
My thoughts are that we would add a different character (donkey, wiseman, sheep, etc, etc) to the scene each day and explain what they were ending with baby Jesus…..
I agree with you…I would add one each day. So that on the 24th, all are present for the birth of Christ. 🙂
I love this! Every year I’ve spent too much on small gifts and candy for our advent calendar. I also never felt like it was giving the right message. What a blessing this will be for our family. Thanks!
🙂 YAY!!! That makes me SO happy!
This is a great post. Love your ideas, I dont have any children but I still love those advent calendars. I was trying to think of an adult way to do this? any ideas would be great. You have a great blog and I enjoy all your posts. Thank you for sharing so much!
I actually have a few readers who don’t have children and they still do this – they just do the activities with their husband. 🙂 You could watch Christmas movies, eat by candlelight, decorate the tree, bless a neighbor. 🙂 It’ll be fun because you’re doing it together and creating memories.
Thank you, we are going to do this, this year then. Thanks for your wonderful posts and for answering my comment!! Have a great season.
🙂 Merry Christmas, Correna!
I drew an advent Christmas tree on our chalk board fridge and every morning the kids add the number of days left until Christmas. Ours started at 31 cause they couldn’t wait until the 1st…LOL
🙂 I love the excitement of children!
Wonderful idea!!
🙂 We enjoy it!
Aww Stacy looking forward to the pictures and updates. This year I’ve decided to treat Advent like I would Lent, with prayer and fasting. I’m attempting a full 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. fast. I am really hoping for a true reflection period as I prepare for the New Year which is the Year of Faith. I really want to take my spirituality to the next level.
I’m loving the “dinner by candlelight” and “bless someone anonymously” I think I will add those to my list of activities for my Advent journey this year.
Dinner by candlelight is magical! 🙂 Blessings on your fast and prayer!
We aren’t sure what we want to start some sort of Advent tradition but we haven’t settled on anything yet. Thanks for the ideas! I did buy a new Advent calendar two weeks ago (our was lost in the fire) so we at least have that so far.
I love looking at all the different types of Advent calendars. Some of them are so unique!!
I absolutely loved the Advent growing up and am growing to re-love it again. I lost my grandmother 11 years ago just before Christmas and I had lost my love for the holiday. I felt it became all about the money and gifts. Our family is working to form new traditions where we can remember the real reason behind the season and a few of the things you mentioned are on our to do list. Some other things are making candy and cookies my grandma used to make and deliver it to nurses, police, and firefighters who are forced to work during the holidays.
Yes, giving to those who serve us always brings a smile and a warm heart! And that’s what the Christmas season is about….giving. 🙂
I’m so glad it’s finally here. 🙂
Me too!!! 🙂 It’s my favorite part of Christmas!