The Reason for Christmas Advent Guide

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My husband and I  wanted to share  what our family does for Advent.  Its a work in process.  I happened on the basic outline of this 3 years ago as I began to seek out a way to give our Christmas season some focus.  Over the last couple seasons we have tweaked it and changed and added to it to make it our own. It has really become one of the girls favorite traditions. 

The focus on this Advent Guide is what and why is Advent proceeds to focus most every day on why we have Christmas, what truly is the reason for this season.  Each day has a theme, a scripture and a heart reminder.  The themes are on why we have Advent, and spend the majority of the days looking at one of the reasons Jesus came along with scriptures to back them up. 

Along with the theme each day has a 'heart reminder'.  The heart reminders are visuals to remind us what we have talked about.  I collected clip art and printed them out.  I stuck magnets on the back and hung them on the magnetic tree we use.  Their are many different ways you could do this.   My friend spent one season having her children make an ornament to represent each day and now uses those ornaments each year to hang on their advent tree.  I've seen felt trees you could velcro them on or you could hang them in a window.  There are many ways you could do this to fit your family. 

I wanted to add some family fun to the busy season so I came up with activities for each theme.  From things as simple as singing a song to more involved like following a treasure map or going on the 'minivan express' to look at christmas lights.  I tried to think of more than one activity with varying levels of involvement.  Honestly there are days that we have time to get messy and there are some days and nights that singing a song is pushing it. For me it was good to sit down and look at our month and as best I could kind of plan out what we were going to do when.  The first 3 and last 3 devotions aren't are really good bookends for the study but the middle 19 can be switched around.  So if there is an activity you like save that one for the day you have time for it, etc.

I love seeing all the different things people do for Advent.  I'd love to know what your family does.

The Reason for Christmas

Heart Reminders-(the 'ornaments' we use. use a family picture for that day)

Activity Guide -(the list of acitivy ideas I've come up with. Add your own)

Advent Planning-(maybe a helpful planning sheet for your own)

Suggested Advent Planning-(this is just an example of what my family hopes to do. Flexibiltiy is key)

And here is a Pinterest Board I created for easy access to activity ideas:)

Merry Christmas!