Tips for a Personalized Homemade Advent Calendar
Calendars to Make and Enjoy During the Christmas Holidays
Nov 18, 2008
This year families are looking for greater meaning and less spending and are constructing their own personalized Advent calendars. These calendars may include religious references, family traditions, and activities or games that help build character as well as anticipation for the coming Christmas holiday.
Advent Calendars for Christmas Traditions, Not Candy
Advent calendars can be as simple as a paper chain, as beautiful as a string of individual tiny stockings, or as unique as a hand made banner of 24 decorated pockets. These calendars need not be filled with mere candy, however. Instead, the days before Christmas can be marked with reminders, suggestions, games and fun ideas.
Scriptural References for Advent Calendars
Many families read all or portions of the biblical Christmas story throughout the holiday season. An Advent Calendar that includes readings from the Gospel of Luke each day offers a great way incorporate the religious aspects of the holiday into the anticipation and excitement of the pre-holiday period. Such an Advent calendar might include a verse for each day and specific coloring pages or crafts that relate to the daily verse.
Family Traditions and Advent Calendars
Family traditions often bring families together and strengthen familial bonds. Including these traditions in the Advent calendar to surprise or remind family members can help to build excitement and increase involvement among all family members. When a day is chosen for selecting the tree or putting up lights a simple note inserted into the Advent Calendar for that day will serve as a reminder of the coming tradition. This method can turn even mundane tasks into family traditions. Making gift tags, baking cookies, watching a certain holiday movie, or cleaning up the house for guests can become a family event and a holiday tradition when a specific day is marked as especially for this purpose in the Advent calendar.
Advent Calendars for Young Children with Games and Activities
An Advent calendar filled with different suggestions for games and activities to try each day can help to keep children involved and busy in the days leading up to Christmas. Online activities, coloring pages and games could easily fill the 24 slots in an Advent calendar. Novelty is the key so even simple games such as Memory or dominoes can be made new with holiday images.
Instead of counting down the days to Christmas with a momentary distraction of candy, an Advent calendar filled with fun ideas of activities and suggestions that keep families busy preparing, playing, and pondering the season is a fun solution for any family.
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