This is our fourth Christmas celebrating Advent together as a family. Each year I am more excited about it than the year before…because this is a time when our family can bond and sing kum-ba-ya. Ha, ha! No really, we SO enjoy our yearly Advent activities – because it’s a time when we can focus on Christ and spending time together…instead of the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the stress that can sometimes accompany it.
So, let me catch you up if you’ve joined us since last year. Our family celebrates Christ’s birth by focusing on Advent during the holiday season. We start December 1st and have a family activity every day through the 25th instead of the traditional gifts. Each day our activity is accompanied by an Advent devotion using Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room (affiliate link, as usual). I’ll put some past Advent links at the bottom of the post in case you want to see them.
Last year you asked to see our activities – but I wasn’t able to post the entire list…sometimes things change and I’m not 100% sure of what we’re going to do. So, this year I thought I would post the list of activities we did LAST year. That should give you a good starting point.
Also remember that I post our daily activity on Instagram – I used to post it on Facebook, but now I just do Instagram for this series.
Merry Christmas! Let’s celebrate Christ’s birth together!
1. Family Photo
2. Sing Christmas Carols
3. Put up the Christmas Tree
4. Make a Gingerbread House
5. Bless a local family in need
6. Make a Christmas banner
7. Make Christmas tree ornaments
8. Pick out a yearly Christmas ornament at Cracker Barrel
9. Homemade Hot Cocoa with breakfast
10. Make Nativities
11. Dinner by candlelight
12. Read the real story of St. Nicholas
13. Give money to a local ministry
14. Send Christmas cards
15. Watch Christmas With the Kranks
16. Take a load of food to the local food pantry
17. Make homemade candy
18. Christmas Pancakes for dinner
19. Drive around and look at Christmas lights
20. Make cookies
21. Make homemade Egg Nog
22. Watch Elf (a family tradition)
23. Family Commuion at Church
24. Read Luke 2
25. Open Christmas Gifts
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I love how practical and doable this list is. Thanks for sharing. My eyes got all teared up with your husband reading to your littles. Adorable! Monica
PS Featuring at Family Fun Friday http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/category/family-fun
What a lovely selection of advent activities you have. And I love that you start with taking your family photo. Thank you for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. I look forward to seeing you next week.
These are such fun ideas! I absolutely LOVE the picture of your husband reading to the kids though. Something about dads and kids makes me melt.
Love your ideas! Thanks for sharing with Thrive @ Home Thursday!
So many great ideas!
What a great idea! I love how some are so simple, yet make it meaningful. We are watching Christmas with the Kranks now! Happy Thanksgiving!
You have some lovely traditions! May I make a suggestion, though? St. Nicholas is a very famous saint throughout all Christendom, and his feast day is December 6th. Why not swap out your activities so that you can read his story on his day? Also, one custom from Eastern Europe, which comes from the story of St. Nicholas dropping gold coins into the stockings of three maidens about to be sold into slavery, is for boys and girls of all ages to put their very best, “Sunday” shoes out for St. Nicholas to fill on the evening of December 5th, St. Nicholas eve. When you wake up, hopefully St. Nicholas will have filled your shoes with a gold coin or two (foil wrapped chocolate coins), some loose change, and maybe some hard candies. We do this every year, and it is something that children really love, especially when they know the history of the real St. Nicholas.
Our activities were in random order. 🙂 We base them on what we have going on during certain days. If a day is busy, we do something quick. If a day has extra time, we do a craft.
I love skill your ideas and pictures too! Thank you for sharing! I’m going to try to do this with my boyfriend this year to remind him why we really celebrate, not just stress over money! Thank you Stacy!
I love your ideas! This will be out 1st year celebrating advent (stringbean is finally old enough to understand). We are making one that tells a piece of the Christmas story each night & will have a daily act of service my son can perform. Now I want to incorporate some of your ideas. There is nothing better than sharing the word of Christ & starting traditions with your kids.
I always look forward to your Advent posts. I can’t wait to follow along on Instagram this year!
Same to ya!
This is a great list! Let’s people know you can do everyday things as a family for advent and we don’t have to be pinterest crazy to do them 😉 Thanks for sharing and Happy Advent to you and yours!
So, I guess I shouldn’t tell you that all the craft ideas were from Pinterest? LOL