Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and even though we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet, the truth is that before Thanksgiving is the time to start prepping for the Advent season. Especially since this year it begins on Sunday, December 1st—just a couple of days after Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I tend to forget about preparing for Advent.
Do yourself a favor this year: sit down now and gather whatever you need to prepare your family for the greatest story of them all—the Christmas story! Don’t make it elaborate. Think simple. Choose something you can do easily every day. Something that won’t take you hours to put together.
This is what my family does. We read an Advent storybook every night. This year, it is Tabitha’s Travels. This story is so good that it really could be the only thing we do for Advent. It is full of suspense, wonder, action, and heart challenge. It has something for all ages. However, it can be a little intense for younger children.
We light an Advent wreath at dinner and eat by candlelight. Then we take our (fake) Advent candles to our bedrooms so we can read our story and fall asleep by candlelight.
We also do a sock calendar countdown each morning. The boys take turns removing a sock from our garland. What the sock garland contains differs from year to year—sometimes manger pieces, sometimes small toys. It’s a mystery, just like Christmas. If we have a busy day and miss a story, we catch up the next night. No big deal.
One other little thing we do to make Advent special is eat pomegranates only during Advent and the twelve days of Christmas. My boys probably get more excited about pomegranates than candy canes. It’s amazing what a little withholding does for their perception.
Even this small amount of preparation takes a wee bit of planning. If I don’t get it done before Thanksgiving, I’ll be staying up late trying to pull it together afterward—and that just doesn’t work for me anymore. I take all the Thanksgiving ads as my cue to start Advent prep now! I keep everything in a labeled bin and store it where I can get to it easily. Really, for me, getting it out is the hardest part. After that, I get inspired.
Happy Tales to you and yours this coming Advent season!
P.S. I’m not above begging. I’d love to have some comments from anyone—even your dogs. If you do anything special for Advent, I’d love to hear about it. Please, please, please! It would help me feel like I’m not just posting to talk to myself.
Note: I have three boys. I’ve found that our Advent time goes much better if I don’t try to make them sit still and quiet while listening to the story. We let them play Legos, draw, or do something with their hands—as long as it doesn’t hype them up or disturb others. In the past, we’ve taken ourselves too seriously, and let me just tell you, nothing good came of it. Don’t make the same mistake.
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