Every year since I’ve become a mother, I’ve wanted to start some sort of advent tradition to help prepare the kids to celebrate Jesus. Every year, December has caught me off guard and I haven’t gotten my act together.
For the past few years, I’ve followed my friend Jenna‘s ADVENTures on her blog. She and her husband use this resource – it’s a site that has the Christmas story broken into 24 statements. She cuts them apart and puts each piece of the story into their advent boxes. Then each day they read that day’s statement and the kids draw a picture representing that part of the story and they hang the artwork on the wall.
I didn’t have an advent calendar. And we’re still living with my in-laws and there isn’t a lot of spare wall space. And then Little Miss gave me an idea today. She wanted to make books. Bing! Like a lightbulb went on – I grabbed 7 pieces of white paper and stapled them together (with green staples my mother-in-law had no less!) and made 2 books. I wrote on the front “The Christmas Story 2009, Drawn by :_________” Then I cut the story apart and put one statement on each page. For the next 24 days, each kid will make their own Christmas book, drawing the Nativity Story as we talk about each piece of the Great Story. On Christmas morning, we’ll read their completed Christmas storybook. I’m very excited! I can’t wait to put their finished books in their keepsake boxes to give them when they are older. Day 1 was a hit, and they are looking forward to doing this each evening after dinner.
Thanks for the great idea Jenna!
I’d love to hear if you have any traditions for the weeks leading up to Christmas. And if you don’t have any traditions yet, this is a very easy one to put together, even if you get started a day or two late. We had a very meaningful discussion tonight with the kids as they drew this first part of the story.