Hey Redemption Church parents! I thought it would be helpful to share what Tamara and I have done for the past several years with our kids to prepare for Christmas in the Mundy household. It’s a great opportunity to not only preach the gospel to our children (yet again, in a different way), but it’s also a good opportunity to include them in worshiping our Savior with us. It’s our responsibility to teach them. If not us, someone else in our culture will!
Simple Advent Readings
We’ve used the simple tools of an Advent calendar and The Jesus StoryBook Bible to engage our kids. They love the tradition (even our oldest) of pulling a toy out of the calendar drawer that matches each story, then reading the story together.
So it means you’ll need a few things if you choose to do what we do:
- We got an advent calendar with drawers big enough for a small toy each day leading up to Christmas.
- We bought or found small toys that represent a part of each story (some of the toys are close enough!). For example, for Joseph’s story we found a piece of multicolored cloth; for Jonah’s story we found a whale; for Isaiah’s story we found a little piece of paper with a feather “pen” glued to it. You can get many of these things at Michael’s, or online.
- We begin reading The Jesus StoryBook Bible on December 1st, reading a chapter everyday until Christmas. It’s a perfect lead-in to celebrating Jesus’ birth.
- Since we have 3 children, they take turns getting the toy out of the drawer for each reading (we always start with the oldest).
- Because it’s not quite 24 chapters to get to the Christmas story, you have one or two days you can miss and still be able to finish on Christmas Eve (which is usually what we shoot for).
We do this right before bed every night, since we already read a book before bed anyway. So it’s a good moment for family worship, and the kids enjoy taking turns getting the toy out of the drawer. It builds anticipation for celebrating Jesus’ birth, and it’s a great way to continue teaching them to love the Bible. Now that we have a couple of readers, they might even enjoy reading some (or all) of the chapters for us!
I hope that helps you engage your children in an easy way. If you don’t have time for the toy, at least reading a chapter each day is a good practice.
More Resources
Here is a list of other Advent resources you can look into and take advantage of, as well. Whatever you do, make sure to pick something this week. If you don’t teach your children what Christmas is, the culture will. So be intentional!
- The Biggest Story Christmas Devotional with printable ornaments, from Crossway Publishing.
- A Jesus Christmas by Barbara Reaoch
- A Better Than Anything Christmas also by Barbara Reaoch
- ABC’s of Christmas pack from Tiny Theologians
- Goodkind has advent blocks and a couple other book resources for children and adults
- Come to the Manger: A Christ-Centered Christmas Guide, intended for 3-7 year olds.
- The Advent Guide, intended for 5-10 year olds.
As always, please let me or one of our other leaders know if you need anything! Love you guys.
Author: Pastor Carter Mundy
Carter is the Lead Pastor of Redemption Church. Check out more about him and his family by clicking here.