You’re Invited!

Starting December 1 a new blog post is going to appear right here for 25 days straight. In it you will find an Advent devotional written with the whole family in mind. Each devotional will focus on one of the people we read about in Scripture whose family line leads to the God incarnate, Jesus Christ. A small object will be pictured to help children remember each of these people. If you would like a head start in gathering those objects for your own Advent collection click on the menu page titled, “What’s In Those Jars?” Our jars are pretty small so our objects are even tinier but yours don’t have to be tiny at all. They can even be life size (though the Lion could be a bit tricky to wrap up). Even printable coloring pages with a picture of the object would be great and I’ve linked to some on the “What’s In The Jar?” page. The goal is to create a visual reminder for the kiddos so that after 25 days you can hold the object or picture up and the child can name who it represents (In our family the winner gets a scorpion lolly-pop which will make sense later).

Each night we open a numbered jar, take out the wrapped object, replace it with a tea light candle (we also light all the candles from the previous nights) unwrap the object and guess who it might represent. Then we read the devotional about that person, sing the corresponding hymn or carol and lastly I play a section from Handel’s Messiah while everyone enjoys a yummy treat. Total time 20-30 minutes. You CAN do this.

Sound complicated? The trick is planning. The first year you’re just going to need time to gather all your props. Amazon Prime is your friend here. If your kids are crafty they could even color their own using the provided printable links, cut out the shapes and hang them on a Jesse Tree, clothes pin line or cork board. Now I just take a few hours every weekend after Thanksgiving to get my jars ready, refill my tea-light stash, and buy and bake some goodies to have on hand each night. Everything else you need will be right here on this blog 🙂 Be sure to subscribe and have each post sent straight to your email. See you December 1st!