Season of Advent
I few years ago I started a tradition with our kids for the Christmas Season. Advent bags. The bags are used to help prepare our hearts to celebrate the Messiah's birth. My goal is for my children to understand what Christmas is truly about. I have a paper bag for each day of December from December 1 to December 23 (we have our big celebration on Christmas Eve). Each paper bag contains a star that I cut out of construction paper. On one side of the star I write the Bible verses that we will be reading that day and on the other side I write a note to remind me of what should be in the bag. The kids add some designs to the bags each year and I love looking at them remember their different stages of art. Every year I tweak it some, switch some verses around, and change how we will learn about what these verses mean. But the basic ideas stays the same so each year it gets easier to put these together.
I always want the holiday celebrating to be fun and when it becomes a stressful chore for me then I know it is time to regroup and redo. So some years the bags started on day 2 and that's okay. There are days when we have other wonderful things going on and throwing in the advent bag to the mix would just add stress to our family, so we don't do it... that's okay also. I keep the bags, the list of what goes in them, and the supplies all together and sometimes switch around what we do each day depending on what we have time for and the climate of our home that day. We also do the bags at different times of the day. With four children I don't need another "to-do" during a very busy month of the year. When the activities are viewed as optional fun instead of must dos, everyone has a much better time.
Here is our list for this year. I would love to hear from those of you who do similar calendars with your children. I am always looking for new ideas of what to put in our bags.
Light of the World Candle or Flashlight John 8:12, Matthew 5:14-16
Story of the Candy Cane Candy Cane Isaiah 53
Miracle: feeding the large crowd 5 rolls, 2 gummy fish to split Matthew 14:13-21
Mustard seed of faith mustard seed craft Matthew 17:20
Fishers of Men goldfish snack Luke 5:1-11
St. Nikolaus Tag story of the real santa
Sight to the blind clay John 9:1-11
Humility do something for sibling Phil 2:1-11
Bearing Fruit clementines John 15:1-5, Gal 5:22-23
Praise to God/worship instrument Psalm 100
Way to Heaven drawing heaven John 14:1-6
Jesus calms the storm boat snack(potato) Mark 4:35-41
First Miracle juice box John 2:1-11
Parable of the seeds seed snack Matthew 13:1-23
Love bake cookies to give away 1 John 4
Build on the Rock paint rocks Matthew 7:24-27
Sacrificial Giving Donate Money Mark 12:41-44
King of kings make crowns Rev 19:11-16
Manger manger craft Luke 2:1-7
Do not fear angel craft Luke 2:8-14
Shepards shepherd craft Luke 2:15-20
Star star craft Matthew 2:1-12
Grow in wisdom book Luke 2:40-52, 1 Timothy 4:12
Last night we began our Advent journey with the top of the list: Light of the world. In years past I have given the kids new flashlights or new batteries for their old flashlights. This year we used candles.
John 8 tells us to let our light shine and not hide it under a bowl, but instead set it up on a stand to bring light to the whole room. We asked the kids what they thought would happen to that light under the bowl. They thought it would burn up the bowl covering the light. We then tried it out by lighting a tea light and placing it under a large drinking glass. They watched in amazement as the flame slowly went out. What a great visual picture of what happens when we hide our light, the light of Christ. Next we turned out all the lights in the house so the kids were sitting in darkness. They were not fans of this and loved as each candle was lit on the table to bring light to the room. Our dinner discussion then centered around the differences between darkness and light both earthly and in the spiritual realm. It was a good reminder for us grown ups too.
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