What God Wants For CHRISTmas and Kid-Sized Advent Wreath

Tomorrow our homeschool group will meet for our monthly activity where we separate the children in age groups, read a children's book pertaining to our faith, then do a craft and have a snack.  We will also have each of the age groups visit the church and pray for some time of Adoration before the tabernacle, which holds the Blessed Sacrament.

I will be leading the Pre-K through 2nd graders for our activity.  I will be reading the book What God Wants for Christmas.

This is a beautiful story that is written in rhyme on each page.  For example, the first page tells of the angel Gabriel from Luke 1:26.  After each page the book directs the children to open one of 7 boxes which contain pieces to make the interactive nativity set. So in box number 1, they will find a little angel Gabriel figurine to place in the manger scene.  The 7th box is when the children discover the best surprise...which is what God wants for CHRISTmas!

The book goes along with the interactive kid-friendly nativity set, which has the 7 boxes and the pop-up manger scene.

My children love this book and interactive nativity set and I look forward to sharing this with our homeschool group.

After I read the book and have the children gradually discover what God wants for CHRISTmas, I will have them make a kid-sized Advent wreath using air-dry clay, green paint, purple and pink chenille stems for candles, and yellow/orange dot stickers for the flames.

Each child will get a ball of clay so they can form it into a wreath shape.

Then they will paint the wreath green and place 4 chenille stems ("candles")  that I have cut 2 inches long.
I will give them 4 yellow/orange circle stickers and have them wrap one sticker around one purple candle.  Then this Sunday when the second week of Advent begins, the children can "light" another candle by placing a sticker on another purple candle.  So they can count down the weeks until CHRISTmas day with their own handmade wreath.

Here is what the wreath will look like when complete

Be sure to visit Lacy's blog at Catholic Icing for more homemade Advent wreath ideas for children.  I especially like Lacy's wreath idea with the Styrofoam green circle and birthday candles. 

Here is a beautiful paragraph I found about the Advent wreath from "The History of the Advent Wreath" by Father William Saunders:

The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. A tradition is that each week represents one thousand years, to sum to the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve until the Birth of the Savior. Three candles are purple and one is rose. The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass; Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to CHRISTmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord’s first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming to judge the living and the dead. 

I give Joy to the World when I share great CHRISTmas books and do fun Advent crafts with the children in our homeschool group!

{Also, join Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet to Celebrate Christ.}