They had several little Advent Calendars, one modern day one with a town house, a festive foods one which had a festive food for each day and an explanation behind why that food is associated with Christmas time. I thought I'd start with the traditional though for my Muddy Girls (Muddy Bubby is a bit little yet, but seems to sit and listen each night!).
The one I picked was the stable scene and each day you count down you add another piece to the picture, so for the last couple of nights we've added each of the 3 wise men. It has the Shepherds, the Archangel Gabriel, some animals that live in the stable and the last three pieces to go in are Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus. The Muddy Girls absolutely LOVE it, they take turns each night getting it off the hall table where it lives and they each take a turn to put a piece in, as we tell the story of The Nativity. They ask questions and remember who each piece is and why they are all at the stable and how they got there (following the star). It's pretty solid cardboard and I'm hoping it lasts a few years, as it's been really nice to sit as a family and talk about the real Christmas story, and not focus on the whole Santa and Presents thing, as I think we're going to get lots of that in years to come as they get older. I'm hoping they'll retain some of this information for future reference too!
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| It sits on the Hall Table and during the day the Muddy Girls check it out and ask questions. |
Do you do Advent Calendars in your house?
What's yours like?
I've got a fabric Christmas tree that has little pockets you can put things in. I bought it when Mr8 wasn't able to eat chocolate because of a milk allergy.
ReplyDeleteI keep meaning to use this one of these Christmases to put other things in it (?), but I often forget about it until the last minute and end up just buying chocolate ones for the boys.