Advent Countdowns

Here are some of the ways that we are counting down to Christmas this year.

Jesse Tree

A Jesse Tree is an interactive symbol of our countdown to the birth of Jesus.  Each day we read a scripture and put up a new ornament that symbolizes that scripture.  The scriptures start at creation and highlight each important section of the bible down to Jesus being born, and his attributes.  Ours is simply a cut-out of brown paper for the tree with a homemade library pocket full of these cute paper ornaments.  Every morning until Christmas, M will pull out that days ornament, tape it onto one of the tree's branches, and we will read that particular story from her toddler bible.

Journey to Bethlehem Advent Calender

I was trying to think of an interactive visual calender that would help M understand what this season of Advent is all about.  I thought what she would understand most would be Mary waiting for her baby to be born, so that's what I went with.  This is a little picture of Mary & Joseph placed on one end of a ribbon, with a picture of Bethlehem on the other end.  Every morning she will cut a little bit of the string and move Mary & Joseph closer to Bethlehem, which they will reach on Christmas Eve.

Candy Advent Calender

This was super simple and took only about an hour to make total.  I cut and assembled library pockets out of Christmas patterned paper, and strung them up on a ribbon as a garland.  After numbering each pocket I slipped a piece of candy inside each pocket.  After dinner every day, we'll share this piece of candy and count down to Christmas.

Manger Padding

Every time M does a good thing like sharing with her brother or obeying us, she can come get a piece of hay from the little jar and place it in the center of our Advent wreath.  By the time Christmas rolls around, hopefully we will have a nice full bed for Baby Jesus to sleep on!