Christmas is a little more than two and a half weeks away…don’t panic. You still have plenty of days to shop, decorate and do lots of fun-filled Christmas activities. Today, I wanted to share with you the Advent Activity I helped to develop for our church plant.

I teamed up with my pastor and a church elder to develop a reading guide specifically for our church. The sermons and Kid’s Church lessons coordinated with the readings, so everyone in our church could be on the same page. This took quite a bit of planning and writing, but we wanted something that was unifying and beneficial for the whole family. We provided a pdf they could download and print and then a text message is also sent daily reminding families to do their advent reading (it contains a link to that day’s reading).

With the readings, we also wanted a family activity to go along with it. The hard part was keeping it simple. There is so much already going on during the Christmas season and we knew our families didn’t need an extra thing to check off the list. We chose four activities for the family to do:

1. Make an advent chain.
2. Donate a toiletry, blanket or coat to the local outreach center.
3. Reach out to a neighbor (bake something, write a note, do something kind).
4. Do something as family and encourage/love on one another.

All of these items were encompassed on the advent chain they made their first week. The families picked up a bag the first Sunday of the advent season with their supplies to create the chain. They were to make the chain and glue their countdown strips onto each piece, then staple them into rings in chronological order. Each countdown strip had the date and a small square in addition to the weekly family mission. We also provided a countdown calendar to place the squares throughout the advent season. Every day families tear that day’s chain and color the square provided.

Then they take that square and glue it to the coordinating date on the calendar. Basically, they are piecing together a picture of the first Christmas. It’s simple, but provides an interactive aspect for children during the advent readings.

We’ve really enjoyed this as a family, more than I expected with our girls being so young. Even Zoey got in the fun and colored a square. Hope asks everyday what it’s going to be and we take guesses.

I’ve provided the countdown strips and graphic in the pdf below, but mostly, I wanted to just share what our church is doing this advent season.

Printable Resources

Advent Countdown Strips & Calendar


Thanks for letting me share,