Making Motherhood

Hey mamas, sisters, and friends! It’s advent season and I have some ideas I want to share with you and your family–either to implement these in the last couple of weeks, or use for next year. Advent means the arrival of a notable person or event–and in Christianity, advent is specifically preparing our hearts for the birth of Christ (and His second coming). After all, that’s what the meaning of Christmas is all about: Jesus Christ!

My girls are three and half and two years old, so I knew we wanted to start coming up with our own family traditions for advent. This is such a precious season and time of year! However, in the secular world, you’ll also see advent calendars galore in the stores. They’re filled with chocolate, candies, K-cups, stickers, and more. These are fun ideas, but they have nothing to do with the preparation of celebrating our Savior. And don’t get me started on Santa or Elf on the Shelf. Well, actually, since I brought it up, let me concisely share why these concepts should not be practiced by followers of Christ. When Santa is the sole focus of Christmas and celebrated as the man who comes down the chimney and brings your kids presents–you are lying to your children (Proverbs 12:22) . When you celebrate Elf on the Shelf and secretly move the elf around your house, you again are lying to your children and promoting magic in your home (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). But Vanessa, isn’t it harmless? Can’t we just have a little fun? I’m sorry dear friend, as a born-again believer and bible-believing mama, I will not compromise my salvation on having a “little fun” when my convictions are aligned with the Word of God. After all, “for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Christian, you can’t walk with one foot in the world and one foot in the Word–Christ commands us to keep His word (John 14:23). Now if you’re still reading, let’s get to the bulk of this post! 

Advent ideas for your Christ-filled home:

1. Christmas advent calendar, wooden house holiday boxes

Okay mamas, this one is so fun! I added a picture, so you can see what mine looks like. I prepared this ahead of time, so since the post is going out in the middle of advent, you might want to bookmark this for next year. Instead of filling this with little candies, I came up with 24 different activities, crafts, places to go, and a present or two to bless our girls with. For example: Day 1; read chapter 1 in the gospel of Luke and make salt dough ornaments! They are always so excited each morning to open these little boxes and find out what’s inside.

2. Nativity Color by Number

This is a free and fun activity for your littles! Click here to be taken to the blog where I found this idea from. Read her post and she’ll have directions on how to get the free download. My three and half year old absolutely loved this!

3. Twas the Season of Advent book

Our plan as a family was to read a chapter of Luke each night leading up to Christmas. However, I’ve been leaning more on this advent book instead. The reading is scriptural and just enough for my toddlers bandwidth before bed. We’ll still read the girls the bible, but I like this book as a good supplement that makes Christ the focus! Click here for the link to the book. 

4. Salt Dough Ornaments Activity

For any crafty mamas out there, this is a fun activity where you probably have all the items already at home! I followed this recipe to make the salt dough, and then I used Christmas cookie-cutters to make the different shapes. We did the hand print ones too, which were my favorite. We did this activity on day 1 of my advent box for the girls.

5. The Christmas Story book

I love finding quality story books about the birth of Christ. This Little Golden Book Christmas Story was a great find. I got it off Amazon for 3.99 and am very pleased! We will read this throughout the advent season.

6. Find a live nativity scene near you!

How fun is this?! We’re taking the girls to a local Christian organization where they have all things birth-of-Christ related–which includes a live nativity scene with farm animals! See if you can research something like this to attend near you.

7. Angel Craft (from a toilet paper roll)

My girls enjoyed making this for one of our advent box activities. All you need is a toilet paper roll, some string or yarn, and coffee filters! I didn’t follow instructions for this, just DIYed it myself. If you have googly-eyes, it really makes this craft pop! Try it with your kiddos while reading the Christmas Story book. Mention the angel that came to Mary along with all the angel that visited the shepherds (See Luke 1 and Luke 2).

8. Advent Playlist 

The last idea I have for you today is making an advent music playlist to play throughout this season. I’ll list some of the songs I have on my own. This is regular music, not kid songs, which I like because my girls learn to appreciate the beauty of these cherished songs. They are also songs that our church play at their Christmas performance, so it further prepares their hearts when we attend that. 

Alright mamas, sisters, and friends–I pray this post blessed you and got you thinking about what Christmas means to you and how you celebrate it in your own family. May the Lord guide You in wisdom this advent season. Pick up the bible and start reading from Luke today. Peace be with you, friends!