Looking for something to do with your kids to spice up your regular Easter routine? Try these (click on the titles for the links):

Resurrection Eggs (PreK-2nd Grade)

You can treat this activity like an advent calendar for Easter or go through the whole thing on Easter or from Good Friday through Easter morning.

Road to Easter (2nd-6th Grade)

This is a cut and paste timeline activity for the events that happened between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.  You can have your kids hunt through the scriptures to check their work.  Check Matthew 21, 26-28; Mark 11-16; Luke 19-24; and John 12-20.  (Those are a lot of passages, but to help your younger kids along you can glance through your section headings in your Bible and get a good idea of where to specifically send them.)

Jelly Beans Easter Poem

Try putting this into your kids Easter baskets or just as a little gift for them.  Put jelly beans into a bag and attach this poem:

RED is for the blood He gave.
GREEN is for the grass He made.
YELLOW is for the sun so bright.
ORANGE is for the edge of night.
BLACK is for the sins we made.
WHITE is for the grace he gave.
PURPLE is for His hour of sorrow.
PINK is for our new tomorrow.
A bag full of jelly beans colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, is a promise, is a special treat.

I pray that you have a blessed time celebrating Jesus’s victory over sin and death! Jesus is risen!

He is risen, indeed!!

Tomorrow I fully plan to be up to my elbows in pie crust, rolls, turkey, stuffing, etc.  So, I thought I’d give you a little gift of two, yes TWO, Advent ideas today.

This first one, the Moving Nativity, is something that I remember the best of all the things my mom did with us when I was little.  (I think I was maybe 5 yrs old the first and most memorable time we did this.)  We set up our empty manger and stable in the family room.  My mom decorated our FisherPrice Little People with pieces of fabric to be the people in the nativity and hid them around the house.  We had to hunt them down and then, each day/week of Advent, we moved them closer to the manger.  They all arrived at the manger on Christmas Eve when the Baby Jesus came, and the Wise Men showed up on Epiphany (January 6).  This could be done in conjunction with your Advent Wreath or Calendar, and you don’t have to have a Nativity set to do this activity: make some out of pipe cleaners or decorate popsicle sticks or print some clip art and cut it out.

The other Advent idea I have for you today is the Jesse Tree.  This activity is probably best to do with school-aged children and older.  The Jesse Tree is a way to celebrate and meditate on the promises that Jesus fulfilled and is going to fulfill.

• John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Story of Jesus doesn’t start in the New Testament. His story is woven throughout scripture. In Isaiah 11, it tells us that the Messiah will come from the stump of Jesse.
• Decorate your Christmas tree or use a branch or even a sturdy house plant with symbols representing what the Old Testament prophets said about the coming Messiah.
• Pre-make the Jesse Tree ornaments and teach the scriptures as you decorate the tree or hunt for the clues together and have your children create ornaments to demonstrate the promises. (They could draw and cut out or fashion out of pipe cleaners or find household items to hang.)
• You could come up with 24 ornaments and use them as part of your Advent Calendar activities.
• Please contact me (liz@fcov.org) for a list of prophecy references to get you started.

I hope that you all have enough ideas to get you going for Advent.  It starts THIS SUNDAY (Nov 28)!!  I am really looking forward to celebrating with my kids and passing on the traditions I learned as a child that have shaped me as an adult.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

One of the things that I remember most consistently about Advent is our Advent Wreath.   An Advent Wreath is a way to prepare each of the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas.

This is a spiritual and can be a somber activity. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical church calendar. It is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

There are 4 candles in the wreath (usually 3 purple and 1 pink) and one in the center of the wreath that is white. The purple candles represent Christ’s royalty. Purple also represents the attitude of humility and repentance with which we anticipate His coming. The pink candle stands for God’s love and faithfulness.  The white candle in the center symbolizes Christ’s holiness and perfection. As the number of candles increases, so we near the celebration of His coming. The ever-increasing brightness heightens our anticipation of this day.

Each day at home, the candles are lit, perhaps before the evening meal — one candle the first week, and then another each succeeding week until December 25th. The pink candle is usually lit on the third Sunday of Advent. As the candles are lit, say a prayer or do a devotion anticipating the coming Christ.  All candles, including the white candle, are lit on Christmas Eve. The white candle signifies the birth of Christ.

Each of the four colored candles can represent different truths about Advent that you would like to emphasize. (i.e. hope/promise/light/love, specific names for Jesus, people in the story – Mary&Joseph/Angels/Shepherds/Wisemen, specific prophecies Jesus fulfilled, the salvation colors – black(sin)/red(Jesus’ blood)/white(our hearts washed white as snow)/yellow(the promise of eternal life in heaven), giving – God’s gift in Jesus/being content/giving to the needy/Jesus’ gift of eternal life, etc.)  Check our Advent Calendar for what our church is focusing on this year.

Your wreath can be as simple or complex as you like. (i.e. four votive candles on a plate, decorated toilet paper tubes with tissue paper flames, or a wreath created especially for Advent)

Here are some more online resources you can use for Advent.

Focus on the Family

Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries

Christ the King Presbyterian Church – Advent Devotional

I’m looking forward to hearing what you and your family are doing to celebrate Advent.  I’d also love to post any pictures of wreaths or calendars you are using.  Don’t forget to send those my way!

We’re a week out from Advent, my friends.  So, now it is time to really plan what you will do with your family to ready your home and your hearts for the coming of the Christ child.

I am really excited because tomorrow I get to share my love of Advent and all that it entails with our church congregation.  If you’ve heard me talk about it or been following the blog thus far, you will have already heard what I have to say.  So, I will not go into it again.

However, I do have something new for you.  Here is the Advent Calendar I have made available for our church (and for you now) to use for Advent.  Please click here to download the PDF.

Each day this week, I will be giving you another way to celebrate Advent, waiting for the coming King.  Today, we’ll look at how to make the most of this Advent Calendar.  An Advent Calendar is a way to count down, day by day, from December 1, or the beginning of Advent, until Christmas Day.  Here are some tips for using an Advent Calendar:

1. The complexity and spirituality of this can have a wide range: from a simple countdown to a daily Scripture reading and activity to something simply fun to do each day.
2. The object you use as a calendar can vary depending on what you have on hand to what ages of children you have and how crafty (or not) you are:
   • A box or envelope to open each day.
   • A calendar with “doors” to open for each day that reveal a picture or verse or activity.
   • A paper chain with one link per day.
   • A bulletin board or tree with numbered tags to look at each day.
   • Anything! Use your creativity!

Here are a couple of links to get your juices flowing.  Both of these sites have tons and tons of ideas to keep you busy or to give you a fresh outlook on an old story:

A Christian Christmas Advent Calendar

Teaching Mom’s Advent Calendar

Please leave comments with what you are doing with your family.  Send me pictures of any Advent Calendars you do and I will post them on the blog.