Childrens Advent Calendar with the Jesus Storybook Bible

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The kids and I have been doing this way of advent for the last three years, and each time I pull out the advent calendar they get SO excited! Also, each year when I share little bits and pieces of our advent tradition I get so many questions. Finally, I’m sitting down to share the highly requested info on our Childrens advent calendar tradition.

As I’ve mentioned so many times, in our home we love playable decor. And this is no truer than at Christmas. My hearts desire is that my kids touch, taste, and feel Christmas at their very core. That this is a time of year to refresh, reconnect, and realign with our Savior. Our childrens advent calendar goes perfectly with all the above.

Childrens Advent Calendar | What you’ll need

• Jesus storybook Bible
• FREE printable ornaments that correspond to the Bible story (Also included in this printable is the reading list of what pages from the Storybook bible to read each day)

When I started doing this three years ago, the amazing printable pdf with all the instructions wasn’t even a thing. The advent calendar was something that someone made up and it caught fire, and now they’ve made a convenient resource to it. Which is amazing!

Optional extra items:

Although we printed off the ornaments and the kids colored them, you can also purchase felt or wooden ornaments if your kids are too young or you love a more aesthetically pleasing tree.

There are also some new, great books that are made to go along with the Storybook Bible for Christmas time.

The Storybook Bible is not just made for advent. It’s a beautifully illustrated and great bible for kids and youth. We have one for each child and truly love reading with them. Tyrion will soon be able to read it to himself!

Our DIY advent calendar board

To keep it really fun and interactive, I still wanted the kids to be “opening” something each day. So we threw together this advent calendar board.

Although it looks like a chalk board, it’s just black paint with freehanded script and painted leaves I drew looking at some font types on Pinterest. Travis cut the back board, and glued on the frame. I then painted it, and glued on these cute mini clothespins. To make the envelops fit, I took a standard size envelope, cut it in half, taped the cut seam, and used those to pin to the board with the ornaments inside. As an extra treat, I place one small chocolate for each child in the envelope along with the ornament. Because #Christmassplurge

Make your own advent calendar:

The corresponding pages to the ornaments and Christmas story come with the printable ornaments. For the sake of keeping it easy, I wrote the exact pages on the back of each ornament that goes with that day, so I don’t have to refer to the paper daily.

Daily

The kids take turns each morning opening up the ornament and handing out the chocolates. They eat them while listening to me read the story of the day. After we’re done the child that opened the ornament gets to hang it on our special Advent tree. This is a 4′ tree that we have just for the advent calendar ornaments. It’s beyond precious friends, and it’s a highlight in the kids Christmas traditions.

To see the spark of joy as they remember their favorite ornaments from the past years, and listen to them get excited about the story that almost know by heart now, that’s what my Christmas dreams are made of.

I hope that answered all your questions about how we do our Advent calendar each year! If you have any more questions, drop them below and I’ll be sure to answer!

Share away friends!