Laurie @ Catholic Baby Steps

We will also be decorating our Jesse Tree and reading scripture as our children put on one symbol per night on our "tree" (which is a branch we found in our woods in a pot covered with purple cloth).  Our symbols are made out of paper and our children colored each picture. I then laminated them and punched a hole to tie a string to the paper.  I made copies of these symbols from this page on Domestic-Church.com  . We have enjoyed reading The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean in years past and we will continue with this tradition this year.  We read one story each night which relates to the Jesse Tree and its symbols.
Patty at Reasons for Chocolate just shared how her homeschool group made it a group project to make homemade Jesse Tree symbols for everyone in the group! Go check them out HERE! They are all so beautiful, made with love and care! Thanks for sharing Patty! 

If you are like me, you may have a lots of Christmas books that you have collected through the years.   A few years ago I found a great way to read our religious and secular Christmas books and at the same time have my children anticipate Jesus' birthday.  I wrap up each book with purple wrapping paper.  I usually find the purple paper in our local Dollar Tree store.  Then beginning on Dec. 1st, one child opens one book and we read it as a family.  Then on Dec. 2, our next child opens a book and so on.  My children really love this idea of opening their Advent Christmas book.  I have a small "Advent tree" in our great room decorated with purple balls and under this tree is where we have our wrapped Christmas books.  This small Advent tree goes up at the beginning of Advent and then we buy our real Christmas tree sometime later in December.   
I also number the books and put each child's name on the back of the wrapping paper so I don't have to remember who gets to unwrap the next book!
A great resource we love is the Holy Heroes website which has an Advent Adventure for families.  It is free to sign up and each day our family gets an email with the next day's adventure lesson.  My children love to watch the children on the videos and hear the Bible stories and history of Advent.

I'm especially excited to join in this year's Advent Adventure because our family will be learning all the new mass responses for the third edition of the Roman Missal with Holy Heroes as they will go over the changes during Advent Adventure that will start on the first Sunday in Advent.  Holy Heroes also has a Lenten Adventure in preparation for Christ's resurrection at Easter.   Holy Heroes is a great and fun resource and our family has learned so much together as a family about our Catholic faith with Holy Heroes!

So if you are looking for another great way to enhance your Advent season with your family, check out the Holy Heroes website and enjoy your adventure!



Another Advent tradition in our family is reading the book 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 my children.

One year I read the book for the children in my homeschool group and after I had them gradually discover what God wants for CHRISTmas, they made kid-sized Advent wreaths using air-dry clay, green paint, purple and pink chenille stems for candles, and yellow/orange dot stickers for the flames.


Then they painted the wreath green and placed 4 chenille stems ("candles")  that I cut 2 inches long.
I gave them 4 yellow/orange circle stickers and had them wrap one sticker around one purple candle.  The children can "light" another candle by placing a sticker on another purple candle as each Sunday in Advent arrives.  So they can count down the weeks until CHRISTmas day with their own handmade wreath.

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.

The season of Advent is such a special time and I am thankful that our family celebrates the true meaning of Christmas by doing several fun and meaningful Advent activities to prepare for the day when we can sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus!"

Don't forget to check out the 5 links below of how other Catholic Moms are preparing for the celebration of Christ's birth during Advent 2011:

Laurie @ Catholic Baby Steps