I am going to tell you right now my advent calendar is about as unAdventish as you can get. On the surface, it would never alert the casual observer to the coming of Christ. And to be quite honest with you, until this year, it didn’t even alert my own children to the coming of Christ. It was one of those decorations that was just for fun. Until God changed my heart.
First of all, you need to know I grew up in a liturgical-based church where the season of Advent was celebrated every Sunday with the lighting of another candle and a Scripture reading leading up to the lighting of the Christ candle on the Sunday of Christmas, but let’s just say it never quite penetrated my heart and the meaning was totally lost on me.
Advent was a word that appeared in a church bulletin. Nothing more.
So, to own an advent calendar meant sticking some chocolates in the numbered drawers and trying not to think about the fact that my kids were eating candy every single day during the month of December.
However, as our family grew, I could no longer fit ALL the chocolates needed into those tiny little drawers, so we started a new tradition. I wrote clues as to where that day’s stash of candy was hidden in the house and the kids would read the clue and then make a mad dash all over the house trying to find it. While for the most part, this was tremendous fun, there was also an element of absolute ugly greed as they fought over who would get to the candy first and who would get what piece. And sometimes everyone would lose their candy because of their bad behavior.
But this year as I prepared for the candy madhouse once again, God placed the word Advent AND its meaning right in front of me where I could not ignore it.
When I read Kimberly @ Raising Olives’ post on how they were combining their event advent calendar with doing something for others, I found myself thinking I’d just add “doing something for others every day” to our list of things to do this Christmas. You know:
- Bake Christmas cookies
- Do something for others every day
- Hide Advent candy
Then, I listened in on Kerry Beck’s free webinar on Putting Christ Back in Christmas this past Tuesday and she talked at length on the anticipation of Christ’s coming and the meaning of the word Advent. And I saw my error.
Now, I am all for fun and even nonsensical fun, but suddenly I saw where mixing nonsensical and actual downright greed with the word Advent in the form of an Advent calendar makes no sense and is downright wrong.
So, here is what we are doing this year…
I’ve still made out clues and I’ve still hidden candy; however, the clues point to the candy and to Christ and with the candy is another slip of paper that tells the children one thing they must do for others that day along with an Advent-based reason WHY.
The very first drawer reads:
No more sleeping, children! Christ is coming!
(the candy was hidden in a bed)
With the candy was this message:
From there, the days continue on with giving to food pantries, pooling their money to provide for a ministry, praying for others, and spending selfless time with a sibling, all with Advent-based reasons as to why those activities have been chosen.
Go to this post to download our Advent Blessings!
So, this year, even though we faithfully do our Jesse Tree devotional, and read Scripture and sing songs, I am being even more purposeful because the word Advent isn’t about little drawers filled with candy. It is about little hearts {and big hearts too} turned in anticipation toward Christ!
And yes, there’s still that little Countdown to Christmas snowman guy my mother-in-law bought us from Avon years ago…he’s just for fun. 😉
Heather Wawa says
That is a splendid idea!! If you ever get what you’ve written on all your paper slips onto the computer, I’d love to see what other things you will be doing.
We have 6 kids and this year, I filled our advent “house” with slips that describe a craft or activity we’ll be doing that day. Fun, like you said, but unrelated to Christ. That was nagging at me but I didn’t know how to rectify it.
Deedee says
We have an advent calendar I made years ago with little pockets on it. I too wanted it to be more about the real meaning than filling it with just chocolates each day.
I got the playmobile nativity set about three years ago and put most of the pieces into the pockets with baby Jesus being on Christmas eve.
Over the days we slowly build the nativity set up in the living room! Some days there are also chocolates in the pockets with the pieces, but building the set is the focus.
We do also sometimes get a ‘fun’ advent calendar to open as well. This year it is a lego one. The boys take turns getting to open one or the other each day.
I really like your idea too! 🙂
Lisa Grace says
I love this! I wanted to do something similar, but I could not think of enough ideas. I am already brainstorming for next year. This year we are doing one FAMILY TOGETHER ACTIVITY each day, and enjoying it 🙂
kelli-AdventurezInChildRearing says
That’s wonderful – I am “doing” Advent with my kids for the first time – I don’t remember it ever being a “thing” in our Baptist church growing up & it wasn’t celebrated in our home either. I love the idea and my children are soaking it up – I’m using the “Truth in the Tinsel” ebook – day number 2 – coming up! Merry Christmas my friend. God bless. I hope you’ll get a chance to read our Adoption post – it’s special to me. 🙂
gen2revztruth says
Awesome post!! 🙂
Jessica says
Thanks for sharing this!!
Amber @ Classic Housewife says
Nice!!
We stopped doing chocolate a long time ago, and each of our daily things are activities and things we can do together to build memories. I’ve seen a lot of lists lately that include or mostly focus on service to others and I really like the idea of adding some of these things in to ours. I do have a couple.. we’re going to make candy canes with the story of the candy cane on it to give out to friends and family, and when we make Christmas cookies I’d planned on doing some for the grandparents… but I could certainly improve that and add to it. Thanks for the encouragement!
Jennifer says
This is fantastic!
Crystal in Lynden says
Exceptional post. Sharing on Facebook. Thank you for the lesson and inspiration.
Gina says
I agree with Heather…I would love to see your complete list of daily activities. I like that you include an Advent-based reason why they are doing the things they do.
Jamerrill @ Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling says
Great job Momma Arrows! I’ve never been taught one thing about Advent. This year is the first year that I’ve really heard of it. Weird, I know. So thankful that mom can learn too! 🙂
Grateful for Grace says
Sounds very special. A question: do you feel like it’s too much and that your kids are overwhelmed with it all (and/or you)? I’m not judging, truly. I am asking genuinely because we’ve never done an Advent calendar. It seemed too much on top of normal life + Christmas. I’m interested though. I’d love to hear your thoughts as you wrap it up later.
thanks!
Amy says
Grace,
We’ve always done the candy portion of it. I can’t remember a time when we didn’t (although I’m sure when my oldest was really little we didn’t, but that feels like forever ago! lol)
After I wrote this post, I sat down and typed out all the blessing ideas we had put together and put them in the drawers too. So, every morning when I hide the candy, I pull out the blessing to add in with the candy. I purposely chose “simple” blessings because I don’t get out much and it really is very difficult for me to orchestrate a big volunteering event or something like that with so many littles and daddy working hours that often extend into the evening. So, I stuck with blessing their siblings, blessing the neighbors, donating to the Crisis Pregnancy center where we meet for church every week, donating online, and spending time in prayer. I’ll be sharing the blessings we chose on Tuesday afternoon here so you can see better what I mean. I really did strive to keep it simple and in step with the season and so far it has not added much extra work to my job as mama. 🙂
Grateful for Grace says
Ok, that sounds do-able. 🙂
I think I’ll make a list right now. I don’t have a cute advent calendar, but I’ll start looking and we’ll just make something for now. I like the idea and keeping it simple is really necessary for me.
Grateful for Grace says
We’re doing it! Day 1 was today and I’ve posted a blog about it now. Thank you for sharing this idea! I’m so excited to see what God does with this. I posted the verses and activities we are doing.
Amy says
Yay!
Brandee says
Thank you, thank you! I would love to see a list of your ideas as I am clueless. This is totally what my children need! Thanks again!
niki says
Do you have a list of your 25 days….I can’t think of but a few?? Thanks
Amy says
I’ll post it this afternoon. 😉
Corine says
Good for you! Excellent post… thanks so much for sharing it! I think you did a great job of adapting that tradition to focus on Christ!
Corine 😀
Lorie says
Thank you for this great post! For the first time, we did an advent chain with my children. We didn’t always do thing for others, and some days we didn’t end up doing what was on the paper (I got sick and it went by the wayside), but my kids loved it.
I think we will try your idea next year so we can focus on the meaning of Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
God Bless!
Amy says
We have days missed too, but children are very forgiving! 😉
Alison says
Where is the list of what you did each day? Would love to look into doing this with my 3 year old but need help with ideas 🙂
thanks!!!
Amy says
Here is the link to the post: https://raisingarrows.net/2011/12/advent-blessings-as-asked/ 🙂