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As we get ready for Christmas we, as a family, try very hard to emphasize the importance of the celebration of the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. This starts at the beginning of the month with an observance of Advent, focusing on the joyful anticipation of his coming. Quite a few years ago I decided to create a countdown chart that would ultimately focus on this true meaning of Christmas. I originally saw this idea on a Christmas card and decided to incorporate it into our celebration.
I started by painting a Christmas tree onto poster board:
Last year I didn't want to paint a tree, so I just made one out of construction paper, but I prefer the painted tree. Tabitha loved the texture effect I was creating. In fact she wanted to try to make a tree herself and add texture. I will share the trees the girls made in a later post.
The children cut pictures out of old Christmas cards to use as ornaments/decorations on our tree.
I then divided the poster board into 24 sections.
And we attached the decorations with tape. I wanted to attach them with tape because on the back of each of them I had put the names of the people who had sent the card. We will pray for each person or family as we go through the month.
In the past we have cut off a piece of the tree each day. I have put different things on the back of the piece being cut off. For example, my original tree (when the older children were little) had pictures that represented different Christmas symbols and we discussed how they related to Jesus. This year we have the Bible Verses we are going to read during our Bible time. I found a great site for Advent Activities.
Homeschooled-Kids.com. Not only do they have the Bible readings (which I needed because I can't find my book I've had for years) but there are recipe and craft ideas.
The "tree" will not be cut until this evening, Dec 1st. Then each night we will cut off one section and read the verses along with singing the suggested songs and doing the activities. As we cut the tree we will reveal the picture underneath which is a cross.
I just drew a cross on another piece of poster board and colored it with crayons.
Then I painted fallen branches.
The card I got this idea from had several pages in which the needles and branches slowly fell off the tree, until at the end we were left with a cross, a reminder that Jesus didn't remain a baby in a manger.
On December 24th, after our Christmas Eve candle lighting service at church, we will come home to have Bible time and cut off the last piece. Revealing the cross underneath.
Originally the tree was huge (I actually covered the window in the trailer where we were living). So on Christmas morning my children were opening their presents under the cross, not by a tree. Here is a picture of the tree (couldn't find one of the cross on Christmas morning).
Here are a couple of shots of the tree I made last year (so you can see the difference in size).
The great thing about this advent countdown tree is that you don't have to start it today. There have been years that I procrastinated and the tree didn't get made until later in the month. You can customize how many days you count down by drawing less sections!
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Merry Christmas to All!
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