We have been enjoying preparing for Christmas here in our house. We have our advent calendar up and the boys are excited to participate in this fun event every evening. Even though we are not in the USA's "Christmas saturated" (or materialistic?) environment, I seem to be more aware of Christmas this month than I have been in years' past. I am excited to begin traditions with our little family and celebrate together the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of our Savior, Jesus. I thought I'd share a couple of the ways we have done that this past week.
I skipped ahead in B's preschool material to the story of Jesus' birth (we started late in the year, otherwise it would fall at the right time anyway). Part of this week's lesson was to create a nativity scene/set that the kids can play with. They shared this link to a site with free printable paper dolls from the nativity story:
http://www.makingfriends.com/biblecrafts/nativity_scene.htm
I thought that this was an awesome idea, so we printed out ours and laminated them. In the past 4 days, B has played with them LOTS, acting out the story of Jesus' birth over and over. What a great tool/toy for a preschooler, as he learns the true story of Christmas. Here's a picture of ours...sorry for the poor quality, it was taken on my phone.
I also decided to try making a Christmas wreath, with my limited supplies...
Here's the beginning of the process:
And here's my final product. I would have used green crepe paper...had I had it. But hey, now my wreath can be for Valentine's day, too. :)
How are you celebrating Christmas in your house?
