Christians - Please help me with my son's Advent calendar!

[geogirl]

I bought an advent calendar at the dollar store which has little pockets for treats. What I plan to do (today!! at least partially) is make either felt or stickers of the avent story ending of course with a baby. Can you help me fill in ideas. Obviously Mary, Joseph donkey, star ETc? Any uncommon or different ideas? Thanks a bunch!!

[darlindeliasmom]

Sounds fun; you could do Jesse Tree ornaments; they are symbols relating to Jesus' actual ancestors, as Christians see it, or of Old Testament heroes. Apple for Adam, stone tablets for Moses, rainbow for Noah, etc. I'm sure there are some sites that would name all of them...

Or you could just fill the stable! you know, angels, animals, shepherds, oxen, etc. Add some doves or other animals from the Animal's Christmas carol--I think there's a spider and a rooster, too.

You could include the John the Baptist family...

Another idea is to make ornaments that match with other traditions and stories: like poinsettias or Christmas roses, candles in the window, etc. Candy canes are actually an image of St. Nick's bishop's staff...

I'm sure some Hannukah gelt would be appreciated by any candy lovers in the house!!

Can you tell I way overcelebrate Advent around here!!

[geogirl]

You can't over celebrate darlindeliasmom!! Tell me what you do to celebrate advent! I'd love to know. Thanks for the great ideas that really has helped spark my creativity. Luckily I only need to make one for tomorrow. :LOL

[barbara]

We have a felt advent calendar that I made years ago. We reuse it each year. We have all the barn animals, several small stars, the cresent moon and of course the large star of Bethlehem. We have the wise men and camels and of course the holy family. We put the baby Jesus up on Christmas eve and on Christmas morning we put a dove up, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

We also light candles at dinner and burn incense in the evenings. I love the Advent season, and it appears that love has passed on to the children!

b

[darlindeliasmom]

we do the advent wreath, and an advent calendar; I would love to get one like yours, that has a box to put the gifties in. But we just open the windows on a paper one. That's the early morning tradition. We light the wreath and say dinner prayers at dinner time.

My DD loves to make a bed for baby jesus with "straw" (some of which is strips of orange, brown, yellow construction paper.) I stuff it in a jar and if she does a good deed, or anyone catches someone else in the house doing a good deed, it gets placed in the manger. She always selects one doll baby to be honored, and she believes that on Xmas, Santa dresses up the doll baby (gold paper halo, bright colored silkies for swaddling clothes)... She doesn't get a letter from Santa, but the Christ child writes her a note, which is left in his Moses basket with the doll all prettied up. some people find that this activity gets messy and crazy with a houseful of kids, but delia really sees it as getting ready for the birthday party. and it's motivation to be helpful and focused as the season's craziness descends.

St. Nick comes on his day to give her some gifts to help prepare her--maybe a CD of Xmas music, etc. We make St. Nick shaped cookies on that day

Starting 9 days before the big day, we start moving Mary and Joseph to the stable. The shepherds are on a shelf above the table where the stable waits (the hills watching over their flocks). The other animals (we have a cow and some geese, hens, etc. wait in the stable. The tiny Jesus figure is also added to that manger in the morning. Then the Wise men begin their journey, which ends on Epiphany...

I'm probably forgetting something; I'm really a little nuts!

Have fun with this time of anticipation...I'm hoping that when she outgrows Santa, the religious stuff will still be meaningful and fun to her. She loves eating dinner in the dark! (the first week of Advent, with only one candle lit in the kitchen, we can't eat messy food!)

Maybe there's a 12-step program for this...

[Beck]

We are doing the same thing!

I'm not quite finished, but we will be using:
[list=1][*]Mary[*]Jesus[*]Joseph[*]magi[*]gold[*]magi[*]myrh[*]magi[*]frankincense[*]shepherd[*]shepherd[*]sheep[*]sheep[*]donkey[*]camel[*]stable[*]manger[*]straw[*]angel[*]star[/list=1]

As you can see, I need to think of four more as well. Fortunately, we only need one per day, so I can procrastinate some more.

Oh, I love the straw in the manger idea. We'll have to do that one too.

[seanjoshmom]

one other thing

Another thing I put in my boys' advent calendar (though they are still to small to understand) is Bible promises for kids--Bible verses that focus on God's special favor towards children, and on His gifts to us, like the gift of salvation, the gift of a spirit not of fear, but of power, love and a strong mind, etc.

[darlindeliasmom]

I saw somewhere an idea that would work for older kids; a good deed a day, listed on a strip of paper in the Advent calendar with the goodie. Sometimes it would be something active, like "visit an older neighbor with Xmas cookies" ; another day something spiritual, like "pray for someone who's ill".

when DD went to preschool, the teacher printed up some Bible verses and these type of suggestions on colored paper, and made a paper chain that ended with a star. She could SEE the time getting shorter to Xmas. I think I'll do it again maybe next year, as soon as I think up enough quotes to add!

[geogirl]

Thanks again for the great suggestions. I made the first one - a donkey. Next will be Mary and Joseph so that they can be on their journey. We'll see after that. It is going to be great. Although Mackenzie is a bit young and didn't really care about the donkey... :LOL

[Meiri]

When I painted Nativity nesting doll sets for my Christian siblings, I did one with symbols rather than people.

For Joseph I painted carpenters' tools.

For the angels I painted musical instruments.

For the shepards I painted sheep.

Hope this gives you a few more ideas.