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A couple of weeks ago, I shared these advent ornaments as part of the CHRISTmas series at I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar. They are our new favorite Christmas tradition (and one you can still do too!), so I thought I’d share them on here as well.

Jord and I grew up in a home full of fabulous Christmas traditions. Looking back, my favorite traditions are the ones that reinforce the meaning of CHRISTmas as the celebration of the birth of Christ the Savior. I love having that legacy of meaningful family traditions. And as our kiddos get older, I’d love to have the season leading up to Christmas be full of meaning, too!

This box of twenty five ornaments, each bearing one of the names of Christ, is one of those traditions! We are hanging one on our tree each day of December as one way to learn more about Jesus and celebrate His birth.

To make a box of advent ornaments with your family, you’ll need-
-a pile of twenty five ornaments (we used big clear ones, small plastic clear ones, plain wooden and ceramic ones, and a few random shapes [a star and a lion])
-some kid-friendly ornament decor (paint, crayons, glitter, jewel stickers, trim/notions, pipe cleaners, pom poms)
-a not-so-kid-friendly Sharpie
-ornament hangers or twine

To make our ornaments, first we found a list of Jesus’s names (here). The list also includes biblical references so that we can look up the passages each time we hang an ornament.

And we narrowed to these 25 names-
King of Kings, The Vine, The Word, Lion of Judah, Lamb of God, Messiah, Savior, Alpha and Omega, Light of the World, Redeemer, Bright and Morning Star, I AM, The Good Shepard, Ancient of Days, Bread of Life, Living Water, Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, Rock of Ages, Jehovah, The Truth and the Life, The Great Physician, The Lord of Glory, The Rose of Sharon, Lily of the Valley.

Then Burke and I set to work, making ornaments. He’s three, so the joint ornament decorating was limited at best. Think paint splashing, glitter pouring, pom pom pushing, jewel bedazzling. Limited, but fun (and funny!).

After the decorating, I’d add the name of Burke’s choosing to the ornament with a Sharpie. And, twenty-five names later, our little box of advent ornaments was finished.

In case you are wondering which ornaments received the honor of “Most Likely to Be Remade Next Year,” there they are. Oh, Lion of Judah and Lamb of God ornaments. You are certainly the ugly ducklings of the crowd. But Burke loves you, so I love you.

Like I said- this is our favorite addition to our December List this year. Piper Jane and Burke are loving the ornaments and the family time- and hopefully we are all learning and readying our hearts for CHRISTmas as well!

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• Categories advent calendar, christmas decor, holiday, kojo tutorials
• Author Kirstin

This may sound ridiculous, but, much as I LOVE hosting fabulous series’ around here (especially ones that stock my Guy To Make list as well as this last one did), I miss being able to just check in with y’all! I feel like I get to the end of a series and have a whole conglomeration of things to tell you (most of which are absolutely not worth a blog post- haha)!

So, how are you? What have you been up to? Decking your halls? Shopping for (or making?) presents? Baking?

We have been busy around here! Besides normal life (plus Adam’s Boards- which are DONE as of Tuesday!), there has been the usual pre-Christmas present making, decorating, shopping flurry. And, while I always have a project or two in the works, I have about seven half-finished/barely started projects going right now. Call it Creative Energy… or working under a deadline… or maybe just chaos. I also have a couple of projects/announcements in the works that I can’t wait to share- stay tuned!

One already-complete project is the Advent Calendar Countdown that Burke and I have been working on. Ever since Burke discovered the concept of Advent calendars (in an aisle at Target early in November, actually), he has been talking about how we need one for our house. Truth be told, I love all things Christmas-Tradition-esque and couldn’t be more thrilled that he’s ‘getting Christmas/Advent’ more this year!

Luckily, Burke’s pretty easy to please and Piper Jane takes all of her cues from him. And so our Advent Manor is simple as can be- a bulletin board covered in muslin, with some dollar-store-box ‘windows’ and ‘doors,’ all labeled with numbers one through twenty five.

We did add in a couple of felted wool trees, a garland of lights, and a white pompom “blizzard” (after Burke repeatedly requested a “snow storm”) and a ruffle-y white garland. Very fancy.

Of course, this little gem includes the all-important daily treats- each little window/door contains candy! There is also a daily activity or to do from our December List tucked into each day’s slot.

A quick how-to on the advent calendar? 1. Stitch a ‘house’ outline on your fabric (optional). 2. Wrap the fabric around a bulletin board and pin in place. 3. Trim the handles off of the dollar store boxes (ours came in a twelve pack) so you’re left with open topped square boxes. 4. To make window panes, wrap twine around the boxes… 5. …tape in place on the back. 6. Using pushpins on the insides of the boxes to secure in place as windows and doors. 7. Add little paper divider so each box can hold the treats for two days. 8. Add numbers one through twenty five (I printed numbers out on sticker label paper). 9. Add treats and daily activities/to do’s from your December List and you’re done!

On our December List? Cocoa drinking, Christmas light sightseeing, zoo lights, fudge making, tree decorating, cookie exchanging, ornament choosing, lights at the Botanic gardens, birthday cake baking, “cozy picnics” and movie watching (we have FOUR different Christmas movies that we watch every year- Elf, Polar Express, Family Man and The Holiday [that last one sans kiddos]), reading the Christmas story from Luke, a movie at the theater on Christmas Eve (and new jammies that night!), making Christmas presents for Jesus… Should be a fabulous, full month!

Do you have an advent calendar? Do you make a December List?
What are your holiday traditions?
Also, let’s play catch up- what did I miss in November?

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• Categories advent calendar, christmas decor, holiday
• Author Kirstin