Fun Advent Family Devotions

Christmas-time at our House: part 8

Some people hear ‘family devotions’ and say to themselves “B-O-R-ing”.  And trying to keep up with a devotion a day during one of the busiest times of the year might just be pushing the limits of sanity for some families.

In our house we’ve tried several different things, in the effort of keeping our focus on Christ’s birth during the holiday season.  We have had varying degrees of success.  I think we’ve got one that works pretty well now, finally.
We tried the Advent Wreath.  I couldn’t afford one of those fancy wreaths with the candle holders in them already, so I had to make my own.  It worked, usually, though sometimes the candles wanted to lean and drip their wax everywhere.  When we had church on Sunday, it wasn’t too hard to remember.  We’d come home from church, and at our lunch meal we’d read a devotion I had found somewhere and light our candles. It got tricky when we moved to Saturday night church because the candle lighting didn’t ever happen on Saturday night, and we’d forget on Sunday.  When you miss even one week it feels like there isn’t much use in continuing – there are only 5 candles (we always did 5, some people do 4).  The candles just don’t look right, anyway, when 2 are burned the same amount (‘cuz you forgot one week) and the others are the correct heights.

We have done paper rings in alternating colors as a chain.  I wrote a scripture passage, that I found somewhere in some Advent resources, on each one.  We would tear one off each day at dinner time and read the scripture out loud.  The kids liked this one because one less ring meant one day closer to Christmas.  They could see the time getting shorter and shorter.  One year I even wrote the name of a family member on each ring as well, and we prayed for that person at dinner that night.  But that takes a lot of work each year making new rings (you can’t really reuse them after they’ve been ripped loose).  And it began to feel very ‘little-kidish’ as our kids got bigger.

Several years ago we were given a beautiful book that has really taken our Advent readings to the next level.  The Advent Book (wow, that’s a catchy title!) is something we read every night of Advent.  December 1 we read page 1.  Devember 2 we read page 1 and 2, etc., until we read pages 1-25 on Christmas day.  It’s very interactive with doors to open for each day.  (It’s tough for me to explain so you really should check out the link.)   It didn’t require any extra work on my part, it is a beautiful retelling of the Christmas story, and we could keep up with it.  Even when we missed a day, it was easy to catch up. If we didn’t read on the 10th, we just read 1-11 on the 11th anyway, so we pick up #10 as we go.  The kids practically have the whole thing memorized and it’s very fun.

There are lots of other books and resources that can just be read from each day or used in very simple ways.  I have seen booklets, pamphlets, even interactive online calendars and devotional meditations.

I’ve also heard of Advent Logs (you’ll need to scroll down to find the description).  My sweetie’s family had done one a few times while they were growing up.  A nice idea, but #1) we don’t have a coffee table in the middle of a room to set it on, #2) the same issue with the candles – if you miss a day the whole thing is out ot whack, and #3) did I really want a 3 ft log in the house? NO.

I have really always wanted to make up a cute Advent Calendar of some kind.  I couldn’t bear to buy one because, gosh darn it, I CAN MAKE MY OWN.  But I never seemed to get to it BEFORE Advent began.  My kids had heard about Chocolate Advent Calendars that their friends have, where you open a door or a pocket on the calendar and there’s a treat inside, 1 treat a day every day until Christmas.
This year I came across a post that included SEVERAL links to different kinds of homemade Advent Calendars, and I was inspired.  Besides the fact that it was December 4th already when I decided to go ahead and do this Advent Calendar thing after all, I was going to do it.

After perusing so many great ideas, I finally decided that there was one that I already had all the supplies for and that I could get done relatively quickly.  I was right about the supplies – I had all that I needed already in the house. I didn’t have exactly what she did, but I’m pretty resourceful.  She used white felt and red thread with large fabric ribbons.  I had green felt with red thread and white buttons and small colorful Christmas-y kinds of ribbons.  That would work.  They would be a little simpler than the originals, but the would be awesome anyway.  Getting it done quickly – that wasn’t quite as accurate…

Anyway, this is what I patterened my Advent Calendar off of.  Her’s is simply gorgeous.  She is obviously very crafty and creative.  Well, I can be pretty crafty, too, so this looked like something I could tackle.

You’ll see that she has little ‘dangles’ that hang off of her little pockets.  I almost printed those little things until I remembered my Hebrew Proverb –

“Put something where you can see it so your eye can remind your heart.” 

SOMEWHERE in my Advent resources I had seen ornaments, or something, that I was sure I could use instead of those dangles.  AHA!  (Her dangles are VERY cute, but I thought I could be more specific to the purposes of Advent – waiting for the coming of Christ – with different dangles.)

What I first found were handmade Jesse Tree ornaments that my mom-in-love had given us.  While the Jesse Tree is a wonderful way to walk through Advent devotions, it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my dangles.

I remembered something that Martha Zimmerman had given me at one point in time.  My search led me to the basement under the stairs where I DID find the thing I was looking for.  YIPPEE!!  Except it was different than I remembered… uh-oh! (I include these details because someone might enjoy this method instead of the one I was looking for)  The paper said:

The ‘Reason for the Season’ Box – Advent Daily Devotions with “heart reminders”.
These visual aids will make meaningful activities as well as decorations for your home and Christmas tree.

Select a sturdy medium size box with a lid.  Using pretty Christmas paper, rap the bottom and the top, separately, so that the lid can be removed without damaging the package.  Top it off with a beautiful bow.  Attatch the title, “The Reason for the Season” to the box.  Individually wrap the following items.  Attach the proper devtional passage to each package and place in the box.  Open one a day beginning December 1.

The “following items” were all little trinkets and things that would be placed either on the tree or around the house to remind us of the devotional passage.  I decided that these little trinkets, that  were meant to go into the box, could be used as my dangles instead.  HA!  I had it figured out.

I photocopied the little passages onto cardstock paper. I cut them all out to be put into the pockets.  I went into my Microsoft Word clipart file and created a document with a picture of each of those little heart reminders.  Then I printed them out on cardstock as well.  I cut them out leaving room to hang them, strung a string through the top, and tied tje string to make an ornament, of sorts.  These would also be tucked inside the pockets.

Then I went to work on the pockets.  Using the pattern from allsorts I made all 25 of my pockets.  It was a little slow going, but I decided that as long as I stayed ahead of where we were by day, that I would be OK (as long as I had the #1-6 pockets done on the 6th, I would call it good).  I think I finished on the 10th!

Anyway, along the way I decided that if I could find a ‘real’ ornament that would work for the heart reminder and that would fit in my little pocket that I would use it instead of the cardstock clipart ornament.  I did find quite a few, and that spiced things up even more.

 

So, each day I put a little treat into the pocket for the day – 1 small treat for each kiddo.  Each evening just after dinner we open up the pocket and read the scriptures listed on the card, talk about the heart reminder, and share the treat.  It has been a blast!

Not only that, but with these little pockets hanging on our mantle, the heart reminders are there for us (and our visitors) to see all the time.  The kids talk about the ornaments and touch them and they pretty much remember what each ornament is supposed to remind them of.

I’ve uploaded a copy of the devotions I put into each of my advent pockets for you to use with your family. You can download your own copy here or here  or here (if you have difficulty with one link, try the other – I have it saved in 3 places in case there is a problem with one or the other of them).  You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, and if you don’t have that you can get it here.