Advent Activities 2012

December 1st is a big day at our house.  Like thousands of other families, we start counting down the days to Christmas.  For several years, we have been using an advent activities calendar. This calendar helps keep me sane and helps us make sure that we get to do all of the activities that we want to do during December.

Here is our list of activities for 2012.

• Decorate the Tree
• Family Night #2
• Start Books Under the Tree
• Decorate Mom's Car
• Shop for My Niece's Christmas Care Package
• Celebrate St. Nicolas' Day by Planning Random Acts of Kindness
• Christmas Movie Night
• Holiday in the Park (Six Flags Outing)
• Family Night #3
• Make Peppermint Milkshakes
• Make Wrapping Paper
• Make Family Scripture Ornament (because we ran out of time during Family Night #1)
• Make Gifts for Our Neighbors
• Deliver Gifts to Our Neighbors
• Make Homemade Hot Chocolate and Perform Random Acts of Kindness
• Family Night #4
• Attend School Christmas Choir (Grace is performing)
• Christmas Light Walk
• Grace's Birthday Party
• Make Grandparent Gifts and Wrap Gifts to Grandparents
• Make Edible Christmas Gifts for Dirty Santa Gift Exchange and Go Ride the North Pole Express
• Go See The Polar Express at the Theatre
• Family Night #5 and Sam and Grace Cash Out Santa Dollars and Shop for Each Other
• Make Gingerbread Houses
• CELEBRATE!!!

I would love to hear what others have planned for this year!

Family Night #2: Revised

· Theme: The gift of Christ is priceless and surpasses all other gifts.

· Review Your Family's 2012 Christmas Memory Verse (for information on our family's memory verse, see this old post)

· Lesson for Elementary School Children:

Do you remember from our family night last week when God first promised that He would send his son? He made this promise when Adam and Eve were still living in the Garden of Eden. Although no one knows exactly how many years passed before Jesus was born, it was a very long time--possibly around 4000 years. You guys think that it is hard to wait for Christmas morning which comes every single year. God's people had to wait much longer, and they were waiting for a much greater and more important gift.

Read Luke 2:1-20: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

· Alternate Lesson for Preschoolers:

o “He's Here” pg 176 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

· Discussion:

o What is the most important Christmas gift?

o Do you remember why God needed to give us his Son?

o Have we done anything to deserve this great gift?

o We get lots of presents at Christmas. What makes the gift of Christ more precious than anything that will be under the tree on Christmas morning? No matter how much we love the other gifts that we receive on Christmas, they will all eventually break and fade away. But, the gift of Christ is everlasting. If we accept Him as our Savior, we can live in heaven forever. Things of this world are always temporary, but the gift of the Savior is eternal.

o How does God want you to thank Him for this indescribable gift? We should have grateful hearts, and we should accept this gift. Think how sad you would be if you gave someone something precious and they didn't accept it. Also, Jesus wants us to love and serve others. Try to think of ways that you can show God's love to others this week.

· Week Two Key Verse (2 Corinthians 9:15)

o Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

 

· Activities for Elementary School Children:

o Big Object/Small Object Illustration: You will need a jar, a bag of rice, and 5 or 6 ping pong balls or other similarly sized objects. (I am using various objects that came from my son's Batcave.) Make sure that the large objects have to be placed in the jar before the rice in order for everything to fit. Let the kids try to get all of the objects and the rice in the jar. Explain that the gift of Christ is the most important part of Christmas (i.e., the large objects). If He is our first priority, everything else (i.e., the rice) will fall into place. If we try to put the small stuff first, there is no room for the most important gift.

o Have the kids write out the Christmas Story: We started doing this two years ago and are looking forward to seeing how their account of the birth of Christ evolves over time.

o Introduce Good Choice Garland: This is an on-going activity that your family can do throughout the Christmas season that focuses on making good choices. Cut strips of red and green paper. Each time a family member makes a good choice or does something helpful for someone else, write the good choice on the paper. Every few of days, attach the pieces of paper together to form good choice garland. Hopefully, your family will enjoy watching the garland grow.

· Alternate Activity for Preschool Children:

o Act out the Christmas story: Let your little ones dress up and retell the Christmas story. For their costumes, you can use sashes to tie towels around their heads and robes for their clothes. Use a doll for baby Jesus. The Oriental Trading Company also has nativity hats for $3. Make sure that you record their performance. This can include all members of your family--including your pets. See the picture at the bottom of this post.

· Activities for the Upcoming Week: If your schedule permits, you might consider trying to do some of the things that your kids mentioned when you asked them how we can show God's love to others this week. Living this out can be a powerful lesson.

Grace writing her story in 2010



Grace's Story from 2010

Good Choice Garland

After years of being cast as a sheep, Phoenix finally had a break-out performance as a shepherd.

What to do with Santa?

I have intentionally avoided this post for quite awhile because I do not feel like there is a "one-size-fits-all-answer" to this question.  It is a personal decision that has to be made by each individual family.  I know that there are people who think that Santa is damaging to children and there are others who think that people are cruel if they don't let their kids enjoy the magic of Christmas.  As with many other issues, I think that the reality lies somewhere in between the two extremes.

As far as this post is concerned, I only feel comfortable sharing how we have handled this issue in our family.  Please understand that we do not think that this is the only way or even the right way to approach this topic.  In fact, I created a disclaimer for posts just like this. 

Like many other families, we decided early on that we would not lie to our kids about Santa.  When they asked, we would tell them the truth. Honesty even in this context was important to us.  What we did not factor into this approach is that our daughter (now, age 8) is the product of two attorneys, and she enjoyed questioning and debating things from a very early age.  The Christmas she turned two, she asked me point blank about Santa.  For those who think that I could have simply dodged the question, you have to understand that Grace's standard response to being side-stepped was, "I am sorry, but that is not the question that I asked".  I found myself completely blind sided and being cross examined way before we had anticipated having to deal with this question.  Since the only decision that we had made was not to lie to our kids, I told her the truth.

Our son (now, age 7) is wired very differently.  He has never asked, and we have not felt the need to sit him down and make sure that he knows that Santa is not real.  I honestly don't know what he thinks.  We have had very candid conversations with Grace about Santa while Sam was in the room. So, I think that he probably knows the truth on some level, but he has never brought up the issue.

While we don't avoid Santa, we don't emphasize him either. Last year, I experimented with our Christmas decorations and did not set out anything related to Santa.  The kids didn't even notice. Since he is not our focus, we don't write letters to Santa unless we are asking for things for other people.  We also don't do Santa gifts because we want the kids to understand that there is a cost associated with these gifts.  If they don't receive an extravagant gift that they asked for, it is because it was too expensive or because we didn't think that it was the right gift for them and not because their behavior was not good enough this year.  Also, we want them to be able to thank the people who bought them the gifts.  (See this old post.)

Even without believing in Santa, Grace LOVES Christmas. We have so much fun throughout the entire month.  It is truly a magical time, and she has not been harmed in anyway.  It is her absolute favorite time of the year.  Grace's love language is words of affirmation.  She gets significantly more enjoyment out of her letter than she ever would from gifts left by Santa.  Sam's love language is quality time.  We spend more time together during December while doing our advent activities and family nights than we do any other time.  Santa has very little to do with their overall happiness. 

That being said, we like Santa. He is chubby, has grey hair and likes to make children happy. I can relate to this guy! We have some super cute Santa pictures. We love our Santa hats. We read Santa books--Twas the Night Before Christmas is one of my favorites. We have been known to put out reindeer feed. Also, riding the North Pole Express is one of our favorite Christmas activities, and the kids and I love the movie ELF!  I really see no difference between Santa and any other fictional character.  In fact, I like him a lot more than most super heros and Disney Characters.  If we are not banning all of these from our home, I see no reason to completely eliminate Santa either.

For our family, enjoying Santa in a limited role has worked well.  But, I know that many people take a more aggressive stance and don't include Santa in their Christmas celebration at all.  I have heard parents say that they are concerned that their children will question the existence of Christ if they believe in Santa and then discover that he is not real.  Honestly, I think that if you treat Christ like a once a year holiday, then you may have a legitimate concern here.  However, if you are making Christ the center of your family, I don't think that the truth about Santa is going to undermine your child's faith.  Many strong Christians grew up in homes where Santa was celebrated, and they have transitioned out of this phase without it damaging their Christian walk.

At the end of the day, we all love our children and want the very best for them.  God has entrusted your precious children to you, and you get to decide how your family celebrates Christmas.  The ultimate truth is that a perfect Savior was born to save the world.  This is the greatest gift of all and should be celebrated all year long.  We are loved by a perfect God and have the chance to spend all of eternity with Him.  This truth prevails with or without Santa Claus. 

My Favorite Santa Picture 2008

Family Night #1: A Change in Attitude

So, we have been incorporating family nights into our Christmas celebration for 3 or 4 years now.  Historically, Grace (age 8) has loved them.  Sam (age 7) has enjoyed the activities that we do together at the end of family night. However, at best, I would say that he tolerated the lesson part of family night (which I think is probably fairly typical of a little boy).

I am happy to say that we saw a change in him last night when we did our first family night of the 2012 Christmas season.  He was quite enthusiastic about the whole thing.  He read scripture, answered questions and offered up all sorts of additional information that was related to our discussion.  It was so fun and rewarding to see his growth in this area, and I am excited to see how the rest of the family nights go this year.

Family Night #1: Revised

• Theme:  Jesus was God's Plan from the Beginning
• Introduce Your Family's 2012 Christmas Memory Verse (for information on our family's memory verse, see this old post)
• Lesson for Older Children

Did you know that Jesus was God’s plan for us from the very beginning? God had a plan from the moment that Adam and Eve, the first people that God created, chose to disobey him. Do you remember the only thing that God told Adam and Eve not to do? The Lord told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Now Satan, took on the form a serpent and decided to trick Eve. He lied to her and told her that she would not die if she ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil. He said that if she ate the fruit, that she would be like God. Eve listened to the serpent and ignored God. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam. He also ate the fruit. Instantly, sin entered the world. 
 

That very evening, God came into the garden to speak with Adam, Eve and the serpent. He told them that even though Satan would try to destroy all the people, that someday a man would come and crush Satan. Who do you think God was talking about?
 

Although this was the first time that God gave people a hint or a clue about his very special plan, it definitely was not the last. God told Abraham that all of the people on earth would be blessed through him which means that Jesus would come from his family. God made similar promises to Abraham’s son, Isaac, to his grandson, Jacob and to his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandson King David.

The Old Testament tells us other information about the birth of Christ. It tell us (i) that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, (ii) that he would be born of a virgin and called Immanuel, and (iii) that kings would bow down to him. There are also numerous prophesies about the life and death of Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus would be killed, raised from the dead and that he would ascend to heaven. Most importantly, it tells us that through his death, we can have eternal life with God in heaven.

 

From the very beginning, God knew that we would need a Savior and that our Savior had to be perfect. Only his son, Jesus, could be the perfect sacrifice needed to atone for the sin of the world. He made all of these promises so people would have hope and would know that Christ was coming. These prophesies also helped people know that Jesus was actually God's son. He was the promised One.

• Alternate Lesson for Preschoolers:

o “The Terrible Lie” pg 29 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

o “Son of Laughter” pg 58 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

• Discussion:

o Why did God need to send his son?

o When did God first promise to send his son?

o What kind of people did God use to carry out his plan?  Abraham and David were ordinary people who made mistakes just like all of us.  God chose them because they loved God and they had great faith.  God has a plan for each of us, and He can use us to do amazing things, if we obey him. 

• Week One Memory Verse (Matt 1:21):  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.


• Activities:

o Set out the Nativity Scene. This is the first and only Christmas decoration that we will set out this evening. We do this to emphasize that the holiday season starts with the birth of Christ and that this is the most important reason to celebrate.

o Play Hiding Baby Jesus. Let the kids take turns hiding Baby Jesus somewhere in the house and then have everyone look for Him. After they have each had a turn, talk about how easy it is to lose sight of Jesus during Christmas.

o Make Christmas verse ornament: This can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. You can see a picture below of the very simple ornament that we made last year.
 

The Simple Things

As we get closer to Sunday, our first family night of the 2012 Christmas season, we start to focus on the simple things.  Christmas doesn't have to be complicated or difficult.  A few years ago, it occurred to me that setting the nativity scene out before any other Christmas decorations helped my family to be more grounded and to visualize the important aspects of the season.  This soon became a tradition and an important part of our first Family Night.  Just take a moment with your husband and kids and set the tone for the season this Sunday.   

 

Color Coded Wrapping Paper

Just a quick tip today.  Choose a different wrapping paper for each family group that you buy presents for.  We have a different color for my family, Tom's mom's family and Tom's dad's family.  It makes it so much easier to make sure that we end up with the right gifts at the right house.

While this system works great, I have to admit that I am sooooo tired of this wrapping paper.  We bought a ton of it about eight years ago during a huge after Christmas sale.  While we got a great deal, I am really wishing that we had bought one or two years' worth of paper instead of enough for the next decade.  I just can't bring myself to buy more when I still have plenty for the next year.  There is a chance that we will have new wrapping paper for Christmas 2015!

Family Night #1 is Just Around the Corner!

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday!  Where has the last year gone?  For us, Thanksgiving week is full of travel and family.  It also means the beginning of our Christmas family nights which start the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Family night is my absolute favorite activity that our family does throughout the Christmas season. We have a total of five family nights which take place on the four Sunday evenings leading up to Christmas and Christmas Eve (or the last night that we are at home before Christmas). We make every effort to avoid scheduling conflicts and to protect this time.

Each family night has a theme, scripture/Bible story, discussion questions and fun activities to reinforce the primary lesson of the evening. We also work on memorizing our Christmas memory verse.  This year, we are going to focus on following Mary's example and saying "yes" to God.  Our verse is Luke 1:38--"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said."  I love the fact that this young girl did not hesitate when she was told that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God.  She demonstrated amazing courage and faith when presented with what had to seem like a crazy calling.  What an incredible example for us all. 

If you need some ideas for your own family's Christmas memory verse, check out this old post to help get you started. 

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6