Happy First Day of December!
The first day of December is a big day for me because I have most likely spent hours the night{or ahem…early morning} before prepping for our advent festivities.
We hang these 25 little stockings in our kitchen and fill them with 3 slips of paper each.
{*If you were wondering about the random piece of paper hanging down in the top of the picture. We also have our artwork/school work line in our kitchen.}
One slip of paper is for a fun Christmas activity like:
making ornaments
stringing popcorn
making gingerbread houses
cutting out paper snowflakes, etc.
The second slip of paper lists a service to do that day. I added this, this year taking inspiration from Cheri.
The services I am most excited about are to brush off our neighbor’s car and to shovel their driveway. 🙂 It snowed all day today and shoveling is the service for tomorrow so it’s perfect timing.
And the third slip of paper has a Christmas Hymn. We read the coordinating scriptures listed with the hymn and then sing the song. So far, as in tonight :), it has gone well.
My five year old even got to read a verse with some help. As we get closer to Christmas, there are some small nativity pieces in the stockings also. We build up a nativity scene over about 12 days adding our last piece, Baby Jesus, on Christmas day.
We did this last year and it was great for my kids. I use our less expensive almost unbreakable set so there is no stress.
This year is going to be kind of a trick because we are leaving town for a few days in between now and Christmas. I have had to get creative with how the pieces will be set up, but Baby Jesus should arrive on Christmas! 🙂
Another advent I have started this year is a Christmas book one.
I wrapped all of our Christmas books, some I got from DI for 50 cents, and ones from the library in old paper grocery sacks and lasts year’s leftover wrapping paper. Each wrapped book then got a little numbered tag tied on with yarn.
Each night they get to unwrap a “new” book.
Somehow unwrapping an old book or even borrowed book is pretty exciting.
I just love Christmas advents. I don’t put in as much work or creativity as most but it really makes things more fun.
What about you? Are you an advent-ist?
Did I just make up a word?…probably.
Oh I love the book idea! I am going to start that tomorrow. Awesome! Thanks for sharing!!
I just posted about some of our Advent traditions myself! I love celebrating Advent!
I’d say you put a lot of creativity into this! Very nice, love the book idea. My kids are practically grown now, but advent activities are still important (and a piece of chocolate every day never goes out of style!)
Absolutely. Although this year we didn’t do anything creative. I bought one decorative box that sits on the table and it has a different little surprise in it everyday. Then there is a chocolate advent calendar as well so we can keep track of the days and I don’t have to bother with numbers on the gift box. Things are crazy around here but I don’t want to break our tradition so I’m going easy on myself. I really don’t think Madison cares at all how cute or creative the presentation is anyway. It’s the idea of it that’s exciting. The presentation is more about me than her.
What great traditions! I usually put small presents in the calendar (gingerbread, nuts, raisins, chocolate, hairclips….) but the idea with the paper slips is so nice and also the wrapped books.
Thanks for sharing.
Awww, I love how adorable this advent is! I still need to take down my t-day decor, lol!
I like your stockings. So sweet! I love the idea of having three slips for your Advent calendar. When my nephew was born last year I decided to make an Advent calendar for his family so they could have Advent as one of their always traditions. I made a new one this year http://auntielouisa.blogspot.com/2010/11/advent-calendars.html . As he’s still quite young it contains little holiday themed gifts for his family. Yesterday he opened a book telling the Christmas story. Today he’ll open the first bits of a fabric nativity set I made. As he gets older I like the idea of adding services.
I never really grew-up with consistent traditions and I’m looking forward to creating our own with our kids. I love these suggestions, love the Christmas book idea!
What a beautiful idea. I plan recreate for our 1 year old! Let’s keep the CHRIST in Christmas now and everyday of the year! 🙂 And I just love how both you and the gal from Lemony Squeezy Home are wearing circle skirts in your posts on the “I am Momma” blog. That’s super fun. 🙂
We are observing the “25 Days of Giving” and I describe our method this year in this post: http://hawkeyejlp.blogspot.com/2010/12/mom-fail-redeemed.html
LOVE LOVE LOVE the Christmas book advent idea! I’m definitely going to try that next year!
P.S. I linked to this post on my blog, because I loved the book idea so much. 🙂
(http://actualizingamy.blogspot.com/2010/12/advent-terrific.html)
Hello! Wonderful, as always!
wow, this is great delia. love that you have all three items in each day, what fun! and the wrapping of old books, now that’s cool.
Delia, friend, you amaze me! You make EVERYTHING so much more beautiful and special. You would be such a fun mom! 🙂
Im so stealing these ideas!
I LOVE that you are rolling all of your advent ideas into one! And the idea of focusing everything more on service and the true meaning of Christmas is so refreshing to me! LOVE it.
I love all the little stockings, those are adorable!
I absolutely LOVE this! Both the calendar and the books ! I’m very excited to see all the holiday crafts you come up with.
Blogged about this post here: http://birchandkristine.blogspot.com/2010/12/starting-family-traditions-and-looking.html
Thanks so much for the lovely inspiration. Keep it coming! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Much love to you and your family this holiday season.
What a wonderful advent idea. I'd love for you to stop by this weekend and link up to my Christmas Stocking Linky Party.
http://boyohboyohboycrafts.blogspot.com