Animals of Advent: A Creative, Doable Advent Activity Plan
Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” the special season where we, as Christians, are anticipating the celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day… and waiting with great hope for His promised second coming. In my 10 Christmases as a mom, teaching my girls the real reason for the season has always been really important to me. I’ve done Advent lots of different ways, but have found that simpler is better for our family in this super busy time of year.
We always read through the Jesus Storybook Bible Advent plan, and this year, we’re displaying our new Crew + Co. Advent cards to direct us to the daily Bible stories. The past two days, on my friend Katie’s suggestion, we’ve also begun listening to this awesome We Wonder contemplative Advent podcast after dinner. Even though it’s targeted to kids, I think my husband and I have enjoyed it even more!
I love creative activities, and this year, I wanted to plan some Advent ornament activities to go with the Jesus Storybook stories we’re reading. Idealistically, I’d love to do them daily, but that just doesn’t match up with the reality of our family’s schedule right now. So, my realistic goal is to make three ornaments a week, for a total of 12 ornaments over the four weeks of Advent. My girls are really into animals, as are most kids, so I had the idea to highlight animals from the Bible stories as a theme for our ornaments. I brainstormed a list of animals related to each of the stories and am letting the kids help me pick which three to feature each week. I’ll be linking them all back to this post below, and breaking down the steps in individual posts. You could do one a day over three different days, do all three on the weekend, or just do the ones you pick here and there! My goal here is for this to be a laid-back, enjoyable, low pressure way to cultivate meaningful time with our kids in what can easily become a way too stressful time of year. In addition to the craft directions, I’ll also be sharing a few simple discussion prompts that relate the animal to big ideas in the Bible story.
If you’re up for simple, fun “Animals of Advent” weekly activities using things you probably already have around the house, follow along here! And if you end up making some of the ornaments, please share on social media using the #animalsofadvent hashtag. Happy crafting as we make room in our hearts and minds to welcome Jesus over the next 20 days!
Animals of Advent Ornament Activities:
(And the Related Jesus Storybook Bible Stories)
Redbird Ornament - The Story and the Song (Day 1), The Beginning: A Perfect Home (Day 2), The Terrible Lie (Day 3), A New Beginning (Day 4), A Giant Staircase to Heaven (Day 5)