This year, I've been on the prowl for an advent calendar that we can use. Much to my surprise, most of them are laden with snowmen, stockings, presents, and candy; all of which is NOT what advent is about. As my sister said "those are countdowns to materialism at it's finest."
Thanks, but we would really like one that simply states the story.
Criteria:
1)reusable: i want it to be one we can stow away for each year
2)economical: it can't cost a lot to buy or to use every year. so many of them require you to purchase little trinkets or candy or something to put in the boxes, and i'm not interested in that.
I've been toying with a couple..
The first one is this cloth one.
I love that it has all the characters from the nativity, and you can place one in each day as you count down until Christmas. I like that you could talk about how each person holds a part in the story. It's very kid-friendly.
What I don't like is that there are so many animals. I mean really, how many times can you talk about a sheep? I'm also not sure where we would put this. It's not exactly something I'd love to have hanging on my wall.
The second is this one.
What you can't see from this picture, is that when you open it up, there is a small booklet for each day. When you pull out the booklet it has a story about the prophesy of Jesus' birthday. I love the biblical aspect of it. I also love that it gives you something specific to talk about each day, without a lot of umm.. prep? work.
It's full of cardboard though, and I don't know how well it would hold up over time. it's also only $19... so I guess you get what you pay for.
There is also the candle option, but I don't think I'd like to do that one with kids. I like the idea of a daily thing, not a weekly..
Do any of you out there have any great advent calendars?
I'd LOVE to know about them.
4 comments:
Noah and I were just talking about Advent today. I had read a catholic blog post about it and was intrigued by the idea. We have an Advent calendar that we were given at one our wedding showers. I think it was from LL Bean. It has little pockets numbered 1-24. I use an angle ornament to move to the different days. I really do like it. Not sure if you can still get it.
A couple of years ago I ran across this speaker at a conference and she had some advent material from a protestant prospective. I think it would be worth checking out. Here's the link to her stuff http://www.nadiaswearingen-friesen.com/DevotionSets.html
Hope you are all feeling better!
growing up, we did the advent calendar to the nines (or so it felt) - we each had one with chocolate/a fun one with sayings. Then mom got one that had biblical sayings/verses that we each took turns opening (cardboard). We also did the advent wreath with candles at dinner EACH night and mom had some pamphlets that she would read from.
try: www.abbeypress.com
www.orientaltrading.com (this is one that has kits to make crafts - something I used while teaching. They have a "sprititual/religious" section that might have something.
www.bronners.com
maybe these might help!
I also got this kit to use in my classroom when I taught at the center:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=299313
we did it every week but I know that it comes with a parent/teaching guide to extend it throughout the week. The kids LOVED doing this.
I also used this to let the kids explore the nativity - something kid-friendly and nothing that would be easily destructed:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Box-Veggie-Tales-Nativity/dp/B0006JMFL2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258934636&sr=8-1
*note: I DID NOT spend the ridiculous amount that they are asking for on Amazon.com. I think I bought it for 20 bucks on christianbook.com*
I also found this:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=4146&event=51500NAT|1001399|87161
Okay, I'm done now :)
We do candy ones, LOL. :) Mostly because that is what I had as a child. I turned out OK, right?
I love the idea of the pocket one though. Very cute. I'd like to have something like that so we can do both. The book one sounds nice too. I'm no help, sorry!
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