Something that many families participate in during the holiday season is an Advent calendar. It’s a fun way to keep kids engaged and a simple way of celebrating Christmas for more days than just the one that officially is given the title of Christmas. It’s been something we did as a family growing up, and this year since I was gifted an Advent calendar, my partner and I have been doing it at night as well and it’s been more fun than I remember it being even as a child.
Advent calendars are essentially a way of counting down/to the day of Christmas, typically with one thing each day. Growing up we had some simple paper ones with a scripture behind each window, and for a few years we had Lego ones which were a lot of fun to create something special each day. Many popular Advent calendars today have a little piece of chocolate in them, although it’s pretty much open ended, as long as you have 24 different somethings to do like attaching a paper chain or doing a fun Christmas craft or doing different Christmas activities like decorating or baking cookies.
It doesn’t matter what the specific tradition is that you practice, or if you choose to do something different each year, it’s about doing something together as a family, honoring the season, investing the time to really think about the holiday of Christmas and all of what it means (both secular and religious), and of course having as much fun as you can during this time of year. For us adults, it’s a good break too, giving us a chance to step back from all that we’ve got going on, everything we’re thinking about and working to plan and have a minute to reflect on why we’re doing all we’re doing, and hopefully recapture some of the joy we had as a child about Christmas.
Do you have an Advent calendar tradition in your family, or is it something you would like to start? If you’re looking for somewhere to start, on my other blog this week I shared some fun DIY ideas.
Laura Dickey 