every year we get assigned to a sibling and their family to give a christmas gift. instead of gifting to all of our siblings and their children (which we would love to do if we all had millions of dollars to our names) we just simplify and get one family to give a gift to. this allows us to all really think about each other and it is a fun way for us as adults to have a little bit of surprise left in the things under the christmas tree!
this year our family gave to my sister, stephanie, and her family. the gift we gave them this year was an advent calendar for the month of december. the idea for the gift really started with a friend of mine, kelly, whom i work with in the primary children's group at church. every year as primary leaders we try to come up with a gift for the families with primary children that will help them remember the Savior and to act like He would during the month of december. kelly had the brainstorm idea of doing an advent calendar of some type. loving that idea i searched the internet all over for different concepts for an advent calendar. i landed on the idea of doing an advent banner of sorts. we created a simple advent banner for each family with young children at church and i took that idea and ramped it up a bit to create a december advent banner for my sister and her family as their family gift from the streets.
there is a white gift bag (or for church we used those white wax paper flat baggies) for each day of december up to day 25. the numbers i used for the bags were some i found on the internet by beth proudfoot at www.bethproudfoot.blogspot.com. they were so cute and easy to download and print! thanks, beth! in each daily bag there is a question/scripture card that directs you to the story in the new testament of Jesus' birth and asks a question for everyone to answer. Also, in each bag is another card that has one of the following "to do" things on it: do a Christ-like action, read a poem, sing a song, or read a story. i included the listed story or poem or song in the bags as well. then with some twine and clothes pins you find a spot in your house to hang the bags in numerical order. as the days in december come you open each day's bag and do what is inside. in stephanie's calendar bags i included hershey's kisses as a little treat for both she and jon to enjoy each day.
below is a collage of the components i used. you could simplify this (as we did for church) or you could even go one step above and decorate it more if you wish. the main reason i thought it would be such a good gift for the family was because it has something in it each day that helps to remind one of the story of Jesus' birth (the questions are not all super easy to answer and make you think) and it also applies Christ's teachings by having a "doing" component each day. my sister has been having fun with it. her girls liked putting it together and as they take each bag down they have been pinning up their christmas cards from others on the twine. stephanie sent me a photo of what it looked like! it is super cute up on her mirrors. i'm glad to know they are enjoying it. i have everything i need to make one for my own family. that will happen next year for us and depending on who i get to give to next year---well, they might be in store for one as well!
just a fun december christmas idea we thought we'd share! enjoy.
below are some of the files i created that include the scripture/question cards, and the to do cards. the checklist file will help you understand what went in each day's bag. any of the stories listed on the checklist as well as the poems can be found on the internet.
if you have trouble downloading or if you have a question--just email me. these are all word document files with the newer version of word (docx.)
Download 2011 Advent Daily To Do cards
Download 2011 Advent Daily Scriptures
Download 2011 Christmas Advent Checklist
Download Christmas orange fhe lesson
Download Christmas Around the World
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