When I've thought about Advent in the past I thought it was just the day by day countdown calendar involving chocolate boxes or activities or what have you and seemed totally overwhelming. Turns out the original tradition is specifically Christ-centered and involves lighting a candle each week as you countdown to Advent (in Latin Advent typically means "coming"). Some celebrations involve each of the four countdown candles representing the four gifts we have because of our Savior: Peace, Hope, Joy & Love.
So here's our take on Christmas Advent that we will start today and continue each Sunday evening.
I have a little Christmas box for each week. In each box is a little thing of treats with a scripture to read that talks about one of the four gifts we have been given. Today will be love and we're reading John 13:34-35. I also have a little candle votive and a LED candle tea light to put in it (because really fire and four year olds, yeah...). Then I wrapped Christmas books that we got to go along with each gift from our Savior. Today will be "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
Anyways, it will be fun to read some Christmas books together and enjoy a special time talking about the importance of the Savior in our lives. Our other three Christmas books are: "Polar Express" (Joy), "A Christmas Carol" (Hope) and "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" (Peace).
Our other Christmas tradition is to use our Monday FHE's before Christmas to talk about the Nativity story and the different people in the Nativity. Tomorrow we'll talk about Joseph & Mary, next week Baby Jesus, 3rd week the Shepherds and Angels, and the last week the Wise Men. We pull out each person from our nativity and set it up on the shelf after we sing and talk about them.
We'll probably use this Popsicle stick Nativity to act out the different portions. Zeke got this from a nursery class last Christmas and it is super cute and looks pretty cinchy to put together. And no worries about breaking figurines!
Anyways, I liked these traditions because they were fairly simple and didn't require doing something each day but still help make Christmas about Christ. What are some of everyone else's favorite Christmas traditions that make it a special time without a lot of stress?
