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One of the things we do during Advent is usually cancel school. While
we're 'not doing school' everyone plays a lot of educational games (math,
geography, Latin, religious lap books I've made, chess, cards, etc.) We
also try and memorize scripture (playing game). We research histories
behind other cultures' Advent & Christmas traditions. We learn the
origin and memorize obscure verses to gorgeous Christmas songs. We bake,
listen to music, read lots of books outloud and silently, and work on our
Christmas presents. It's a (relatively) quiet & refreshing time
around the house.
 | One year at the end of summer, my dear friend, Laura, found purple plastic
plates and bowls at Meijer for 75% off. I got an 8 piece place setting
for $15. We use these during Advent & Lent. |
| When we set up our manger scene we hide baby Jesus and put Him in His
place Christmas morning before we open presents. (I'll never forget the year
I spent Christmas morning searching everywhere for Baby Jesus. I hid
Him a little too well.) We sing Happy Birthday and that afternoon we
often bake a cake. |
| We each choose 3 gifts we will give Jesus on or after his birthday (acts
of love, service, prayer, etc.) We write them on slips of paper and
put them under the tree. When we open presents Christmas morning, we
open his present and remember to give him our gifts. |
| We put the Kings across the room and slowly throughout Advent and
Christmas move them closer until they come adore Him on Epiphany. |
| The kids make Baby Jesus' bed softer. With each act of love they do,
they get to put a piece of hay in His manger softening His bed and
their hearts to receive Him. |
| I usually have the bigger kids do some reflective activity. In 2006,
I bought them a Spiritual
Crib Handwriting Practice book. They don't really need it for the
handwriting, but it's a lovely reflective exercise. |
| Each year we do a Jesse Tree. The link
is to a page about our Jesse Tree and the ornament swap we participated in. |
| We also use an Advent Wreath. My
personal favorite one is in the description below, but Dave likes the celtic-stone
looking one he bought. I also LOVE the mantle ideas I've read about.
If I was going to put the effort into making an Advent Calendar, I
wanted it to really do the job. A friend had wanted to make an
advent wreath and bought all the felt, but didn't have time to do
it. So I inherited the materials (THANK YOU!) and set to work -er-
set to thinking about it. 
I've never liked the numbers on top of the scene of a Advent
calendar, but I love the idea. So I thought I'd make a calendar
where we insert a leaf for each day we count down. I cut TONS of
leaves. I made a leaf template that was 3"x2" and cut
and cut and cut (that took a whole year).
The next year, I cut the candles for the wreath and sewed on
leaves and candles. I used pins to put the leaves and candles
where I wanted on the purple felt and shoved it
through the sewing machine. I'm not very good  with
the sewing machine and some of the leaves didn't lay flat. I
decided that it made it look cool that way rather than messy (and
I wasn't about to tear it all out.) Then I put it away 'till the
next year.
In 2009, I decided I
wanted to celebrate special saint days in Advent...it turns out there
are lots of saint days in Advent. So I plugged saints into their
dates and then plugged personal saints for our family (the names
of our kids, our favorites, etc.)
I found clipart online and added a textbox that stated the
saint name and date Dec 6, etc. I used Iron
On Printer Paper and then ironed the picture onto a white
fabric. I cut out pictures and text boxes (which were  now
backwards -- I didn't want to wait another year to figure out the
new version of Publisher how to make the words backwards so they
ironed-on forwards). I glued the text to the back of the leaf and
the picture to the front of the leaf. I used adhesive backed
velcro dots to affix the leaves to the banner.
Using silver and gold fabric paint we wrote the themes for the
weeks of Advent on each candle. (The silver didn't look good on
the lilac.)
I I was THRILLED to find a tight tule in pink, orange and yellow
to make the flames. I folded them until I was happy that it looked
flame-like and sewed it into that shape at the bottom. 
Then I used the velocro dots.
Dave bought me a banner hanger (the black wrought-iron picture
below) for $15 
at Lowe's. I was thrilled with the price. I sewed a casing in the
top of the purple fabric so it would hang where I wanted on the
fireplace. 
I meant to do an iron-on of the O Antiphons, but I didn't
get that far this year. I did print off a booklet I made with each
O Antiphon and reflections -- maybe next year I'll add them to the
banner... 
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Advent Banner
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felt in purple (backing)
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felt in lavendar (3 candles)
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felt in pink (1 candle - Gaudette Sunday)
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Felt in green (leaves)
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green thread
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purple thread
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fabric for the flames
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adhesive backed velcro dots
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Iron On Printer Paper
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elmers glue
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PDF of O Antiphons Booklet Advent O Antiphons.pdf-
if you tell your printer ("Print" "Properties"
"Finishing") to print on both sides of the paper (click the box
"print on both sides manually") then it will print in booklet
form.
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| PDF
link of Advent Saints page ready to print onto Iron-on Paper (the
text is backwards, like a mirror image) Advent Saints - with backward text for iron-on paper.pdf
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| Information on what
Advent means including Gaudette
Sunday (the 3rd Sunday in Advent)
An
overview of Advent |
| Background information on the O Antiphons
meanings,
verses & music of O Antiphons
a
series of podcasts with reflections on each of the O Antiphons |
| Advent Calendar
of Saints |
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*Top
of Page*
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| O Antiphons House
Buy this .
Paint. Holy Family picture at top. Decorations in all
but 7 'rooms' (in this case stars). Pretty backing paper in 7
rooms each with an O Antiphon listed.
O Antiphon symbols on each of 7 blocks and start December 17th.
I'll have the kids sing that verse of O Come
Emmanuel while we put the O Antiphon symbol (block) in the house and
read the reading.
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Veni,
Veni, Emmanuel or O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
O
Antiphon Symbols & readings
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of Page*
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| Beautiful Ornaments
from http://www.livingeducation.typepad.com
under November 26, 2006 - You can use old Christmas cards, or use Google
Image Search and the Patron
Saint Index for saints whose feast day falls during Advent.
Directions are posted to this
blog (it's not mine)
Supplies needed: Christmas cards--front
with picture, and cards with a solid colored back like gold or
silver, blue, red, green.
Circle and triangle templates --The site above
gives an example, but you can make them bigger, which will make the
entire ornament bigger. Just make sure the triangle stays in
proportion to the circle.
Glue Tacky glue, or something that dries fast,
doesn't run, and holds well. I haven't tried all the new glues to
know if a better one than Tacky glue would work.
Scissors
Thread or string--to suspend ornament
Glitter--
I trace the circles and cut out, then I divvy up the
ornaments. I try to match color themes, so things don't clash. I use
15 picture and 5 solid colored circles for each ornament. Fold the
circles on the triangle.
When you make the first "row", before you put the 5th
circle, cut a length of crochet thread, knot it in a circle (make a
large knot) and then glue it inside the first row, to come out
through the top. Be generous with the glue...this will suspend the
ornament, and when this breaks off, it's harder to find a way to
hang the ornament. Add the 5th circle and then continue with the
next row, which will be 10 circle, but alternating with a picture
and a solid color. Then complete the 5th row, creating the globe
ornament.
Since I use glitter, the edges don't have to be perfectly lined up.
The glitter will cover up a lot of faults. Using glitter glue or
tacky glue, make a line of glue along each edge and sprinkle with
glitter. I do the glitter in stages, letting parts dry so I can hold
onto the ornament while glittering the rest.
Here's
a link to specific instructions
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You can make them any size, but the
circle and triangle need to be the same size.
St. Juan Diego
Immaculate Conception
And St. Lucy (still in progress)
copyright © 2006 Katherine Johnson. All Rights
Reserved.
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Some of our dear friends let us borrow this advent wreath that
their parents had made and used for the previous 40 years.
I liked it so much, I begged Dave to make me one. It was a
sturdy ring from an old lampshade. He took (coat hanger?) wire coming
directly out from the ring and the wire ended in a little loop or
circle that was perpendicular to the lampshade ring. The loop
just fit a taper and is where you put the candle in (with a
little foil so it's snug). The candles are staggered, so they
don't melt each other. Then a plastic wreath with artificial
greens was wired & glued on top of the ring. It's toddler
proof and I loved it!
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