Our family loves advent (more then Christmas!) and we put a lot of thought and effort into what we do over the advent period. We are not a Santa family and we tend to shy away from decorating the house with Santa, Reindeer or snowflakes. Instead we like to fill our home with things that remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. For us advent is a time to remind ourselves and get ready for the real meaning of Christmas (but we also want it to be fun for our son!)

Here are two things we are doing this year:

Our Advent Calendar:

Last year I made some bunting out of scraps I had at home, numbered 1-25.

Inside each pocket is:

• a puzzle piece from a Nativity Puzzle I bought (I put magnets on these so day by day our son can put it on the fridge)
• a chapter to read from my son’s bible (This year its mostly from the Jesus Story Book Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones)
• a memory verse to look up
• a symbol to represent the story we have read which my son then puts on the Christmas tree

If you want to download our Advent reading plan and Advent Cards click on the link below:

• Advent story cards list 2014
• Advent story cards 2014

Our Advent Candles and Wreath

Taking pride of place on the center of our table we have put our advent candles to help remind us of the coming king. Every Sunday we will light a new candle starting four Sundays before Christmas. The final candle will be lit on Christmas Day.

For our display we used nothing new-  it used homemade soy candles which I had left over from some homemade presents and rosemary from the garden. It is displayed on my cake stand

Happy Advent!