Our Advent Activity

In my last post (Read it here!), I talked about preparing my family for Advent by using an Advent Calendar. An Advent Calendar is basically used to do a countdown for Christmas. It usually starts on December 1 all the way to Jesus' birthday. I wanted my kids and I to do a little activity each day to remind us of Jesus' coming. I also saw this article about celebrating Advent with kids using the Jesus Storybook Bible and I decided to combine both. Read the article here.

So first I had to make our own calendar. I wanted it to be fun and memorable for the kids. I decided to make a Christmas tree using felt with different felt ornaments that represent each of the stories that we will read from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

Advent Tree Calendar

Materials:
Different colors of felt cloth

Thread and needle

Different kinds of ribbons

Pins and scissors
Buttons
Christmas cookie cutters

Lots of patience

1. First I drew and cut a tree on the green felt cloth. I wanted ours to be two shades of green. Here's Tali putting pins on the tree to hold them in place.

2. I sewed the two cut up trees together using a running stitch with a yellow thread.

3. I had my son trace some of the Christmas cutters unto the felt.

4. I cut them up and sewed some of the details on them using the ribbons. I also put a long loop on top of the ornaments so they can hang them.

5. I sewed on the buttons to the tree. These will be where the ornaments will hang.

Advent Reading Plan
We also read from the Jesus Storybook Bible using this Advent Reading Plan:

And for our activity, I downloaded this advent plan from YouVersion called Countdown to Christmas (https://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/216-countdown-to-christmas - You just have to create an account to use the reading plan). It has short activities to do with the kids to help prepare them for Christmas.

Or you can also try this other site: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/fotf/tf_2012advent/#/2

They have a downloadable or printable Advent Activity Calendar.  It's also easy to use. You also just have to put your name and email address and its ready to download.

It was a good activity for us. I learned a lot and hopefully, they picked up the lessons too.

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” —John 17:24