What do you do for Advent? We have done a calendar before, a visible countdown to Christmas with a little treat each day. This year I really wanted to make our Advent countdown more Christ-centered. To make it a countdown to Jesus’ birth, not just a countdown to Present Day, which is what I was fearing Christmas was starting to become to my five year old.
I was so happy when I heard about Truth in the Tinsel. (affiliate link)
Truth in the Tinsel is an ebook that you can purchase and print. Each day includes a small part of the Christmas story to discuss, with scripture to read, and an ornament to make that relates to that part of the story. Pictured above are the candle, to represent Jesus being the light of the world, a crown, to show that he is King, and an angel to represent Gabriel.
Here we are, the 4th of December, and we are loving Truth in the Tinsel so far. Five is a great age to do these crafts and to have a little discussion about the verses. The combination of the ornament along with the prompts that are included in the book really seem to make each little part of the Christmas story stick with him.
Some of the ornaments are included in the ebook, like the paper dolls pictured above. We just cut them out and painted them with water color paints.
Most of the ornament crafts are relatively easy to make with things that you may already have at home. For example, the above ornament was made with a craft stick, string, glue, and letters and names cut from magazines. So easy, and really fun for everyone to do together.
If you don’t have an Advent calendar or activity planned, I really recommend Truth in the Tinsel! (affiliate link).
If you do something for Advent, what do you do? Please share in the comments!
Ashley Greeno
How sweet! I love this :) A craft a day is a really fun way to celebrate! We’ve been talking a lot about what traditions we want to start since next year will probably be the first year Lily will have much interest :)
Meeling
Very cool Kelly! What a great way to get him involved.
I’m afraid we’ve always done the traditional route of a chocolate a day calendar. Trader Joe’s carries my kids favorites. Even my grown children still love to do it, though I think they sometimes eat all their chocolates in 1 or 2 days now!!