5 Ways to Celebrate Advent With Your Children

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It’s December. Lights are up everywhere. You’re buying and wrapping gifts like crazy. The Christmas season is well underway, right?

Wrong.

Actually, according to the traditional church calendar, the Christmas season doesn’t begin until, well, Christmas! It starts December 25, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and lasts twelve days, until Epiphany, which celebrates the coming of the wise men, or magi.

What we are actually in the midst of right now is the Advent season, a month-long period of preparation for Christmas. It is observed in Catholic, Orthodox, and many mainline Protestant churches, but Christians from many other denominations are beginning to take notice of it. For some, it is merely a countdown to Christmas. For others, it is a way to find some peaceful moments in the frenzy of the holidays. And for others, it is a way to focus one’s heart on the meaning of Christmas and to prepare for that celebration.

Even though we are more than a week into the Advent season, it is not too late to participate in it and to help your children participate, too! Here are some ideas for how to bring Advent into your home this year.

5 ways to celebrate advent with your childrenAdvent Calendar

I’m sure you’ve seen these. They are paper calendars, sometimes more elaborate, with a door to open for each day of December. The secular ones may have chocolates or characters behind each door. The ones focused on the spiritual celebration have pictures of biblical figures and Bible verses. It is an easy way to count down and focus on what is coming.

Advent Devotions

This goes a step beyond the Advent calendar to include a Scripture reading and thoughts about it for each day of Advent. There are online devotionals and print ones, and apps as well. There is an e-book called “Truth in the Tinsel” that is very good as well as one called “Grow with Me Family Advent Experience.”

Advent Wreath

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This tradition goes back to the fourth century. The idea is to have a wreath with four, or sometimes five, candles, one for each Sunday of Advent, and a white candle in the middle for Christmas Eve. For each candle, you read a Scripture passage that focuses on that Sunday’s theme. The most common ones are hope, love, joy, and peace, but there are lots of variations.

On a related note, if you have experienced the loss of a baby in pregnancy or infancy, you can find a series of Advent Sunday devotionals just for you at Naomi’s Circle.

Jesse Tree

This goes along with the Advent devotions idea, but focuses on Bible passages that tell the story of redemption, from Creation up to the birth of Christ, so lots of passages from the Old Testament. A great article about it and list of the Scriptures for each day is on The Voice from the Christian Resource Institute.

Intentional Advent Activities

Along with traditional Advent activities, participate in anything that focuses our attention on Jesus would fit the bill here. Some ideas:

  • Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACK). A friend turned me on to this idea, and I love it! But I am terrible at thinking of things to do, so there are some wonderfully creative people who have done the work for us, like this one.
  • Choosing a birthday present for Jesus by donating to a needy community through an organization like Samaritan’s Purse.
  • Seeing a live Nativity
  • Angel Tree (gifts donated to children whose parents are incarcerated)
  • Donating gently used toys
  • Wrapping up Christmas books you already have (or library books) and opening one each day to read and enjoy

What are some things you are doing with your children to celebrate Advent and prepare for Christmas?

Candle Photo credit: sacha81 / Foter / CC BY-NC
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Kristi Bothur
Kristi is a pastor’s wife, mother, writer, and former public school teacher for English for Speakers of Other Languages. She grew up all over the United States as an Air Force brat, but moved to Columbia in the 1990s to attend Columbia International University, and has called the Midlands “home” ever since. Her days are kept full with the antics and activities of her children - homeschooling, church activities, American Heritage Girls, and Trail Life - as well as writing and leading her Columbia-based pregnancy loss ministry, Naomi’s Circle. Kristi is a contributing editor for “Rainbows and Redemption: Encouragement for the Journey of Pregnancy After Loss” (www.rainbowsandredemption.weebly.com) and a co-author of “Sunshine After the Storm: A Survival Guide for the Grieving Mother“ (sunshineafterstorm.us). She shares her thoughts about faith, family, and femininity on her blog, This Side of Heaven (www.thissideofheavenblog.com).

2 COMMENTS

  1. There are so many great ideas for advent. Thanks for this article. This is an activity I made for my children that you are welcome to use. It is a Jesus Advent Chain to count down to Christmas. Each chain link has a name for Jesus and a Bible verse reference. I also created lesson plans with an activity for each name. You can print it here. http://www.funfrugalhomeschool.com/2012/12/christmas-advent-chain-and-bible-study.html

    I hope you have a blessed Christmas.

  2. I’ve only ever managed to get the Advent wreath done, but I keep vowing to do more. I’m so glad to have Advent to stem the tide of Santa/presents/candy/gimme. As an extra bonus, I don’t have to fret about getting the Christmas tree up “on time”: If I have it up before the 24th, it’s early! And then I get to leave stuff up until Epiphany with zero guilt.

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