The Christmas season is in full swing for us as we begin our many special traditions again this year. As always, we have tried to keep the focus on Jesus and blessing others over this period, rather than on presents and “getting.”The Blessing Buddies have arrived with their acts of kindness for others and the children are excitedly searching for them each morning to see what they are up to. (Full explanation, printable poem and many acts of kindness ideas here.)
We are opening one special Christmas book to read each evening. This year I have sewed 24 bags for the books that I can reuse year after year.
The child of the day rushes out each morning to open the advent calendar and place the nativity figure onto the stable. Rather than treats this year, our advent calendar has an envelope filled with a handful of Lego for each child to open on their appointed day. I was able to buy a huge bag of secondhand Lego cheaply at an op shop and had my eldest make up little sets for each day.
The same child takes their turn to pull out the day’s Jesse tree reading. This year we are focussing on the symbols of Christmas, looking at their meanings and how they can help point us and others to God.
Decorating the tree was eagerly awaited as always and our youngest placed the star on top as is our tradition, despite the fact that Daddy had to hold her hand in place to do it.
Another morning search finds our “What’s in the box?” Christmas table activity tray for the day. These Montessori style trays are for the toddlers and young children to do while the older children work on more difficult crafts or activities.
After our morning devotion using the symbol of the day we look in the craft box to find a special Christmas activity for the morning. With carols in the background we create something special, often related to the blessing of the day and meant to be given away to bless others.
We will be cruising the canals admiring the Christmas lights soon and attending the living nativity in a couple of weeks, with one important difference this year – the girls are in it. Our high tea for the senior church ladies is all set for a couple of Saturday’s time and we have a full schedule leading up to Christmas.
Having asked the children some weeks ago what they remembered as special about Christmas in our family I was glad to see that they did recall most of the traditions we have started and were looking forward to doing them again. Hopefully they will look back on this family time with fond memories and a heart that is knitted to us and their siblings for life.
For a full list of all our Christmas tradition and family identity building ideas for the Christmas period, see this post.
Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.), Uncategorized | Tagged: Blessing Buddies, Christian Christmas, christmas crafts for children, Christmas traditions, Jesse tree, Montessori style tray activities for toddlers |
angathome 
Love your Christmas posts! I wanted to use your Jesse tree idea (from past years), but wasn’t organised to get the symbols together. My Daughter was given the Jesus Storybook Bible (zonderkids) from school this year, a few days into December. I discovered (from pinterest) that the book has 24 stories counting down to the Christmas story, so we have been reading one every evening and picking out a symbol from the story to find/prepare ready for next year.
We have made a gingerbread nativity this year too.
I love all your ideas, and will definitely be adding more in the years to come!
Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas and photos.
Thanks for your kind words Kate. Yes, The Jesus Storybook Bible works well doesn’t it? We used it once several years ago when the children were younger but I had forgotten about that. Thank you for the reminder.