Stehouwer Christmas Countdown!

This time of year represents one of parenting's biggest challenges: teaching our children about the true meaning of Christmas! In an attempt to help our children grasp that this season is about giving to others and a little baby in a manger, we have found a few special activities. The first one is the Christmas countdown chain....but this year we added a twist. Instead of just using it to count down to Christmas, I found this awesome site that had printables to attach to each link. It includes a Bible verse, craft or activity and part of the Christmas Bible story or book to read. I've incorporated this into our homeschool day and so far am loving it. Another fun advent activity we're doing this year is this cone-iferous forest idea out of the November Family Fun magazine. Under each tree is an activity for our family such as Wii games, smoothie night, sledding, making a gingerbread house or a small candy treat for the kids! The kids love finding out what our family will be doing each evening when we check the trees:)

The last thing we're doing is putting a star on the baby Jesus chart. It has a cute little poem that we've read each night when we put on the star. It says "Each night before prayers are said, add one star and hop into bed. When all the stars are shining bright, Christmas will come with the morning light!" I know the kids will love watching the sky over Jesus fill with stars!

This is one of the things I looked forward to the most about having my own children, I didn't know it would be so challenging to overcome what the world has made Christmas to be and teach my little ones that it's not about them or the presents. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

The Christmas advent activities for the chain and the baby Jesus star chart were found at http://hubbardscupboard.org/christmas.html