Homeschooling Family Christmas Traditions: Create an Advent Tree & Calendar

Simple, Meaningful Christmas Traditions for Homeschooling Families during Advent

Are you looking for something different this Christmas season? Maybe some new Christmas customs that are simpler, but also have more depth?

Learn what my family has done the past 6 years that got us off of the Christmas Crazy Train that we’d been on that required me to stay up past midnight every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas in order to “get it all done”.

I quit doing Elf on the Shelf and other things that while silly and fun, weren’t really adding anything with real meaning to my family’s Christmas season.

Plus I was SO SO tired and grumpy from trying to do it all!

Do you know the feeling?

We decided to hop off of the crazy-busy train that was December at our house and picked out only the things that really mattered to our family.

Jenn Carson

The result was our new tradition of having an Advent Tree, which is a combination of a custom Advent Calendar with Christmastime activities, Bible readings, and Jesse Tree all in one.

Our Advent Tree didn’t replace our Christmas tree or other traditions that we wanted to keep. It just was an easy way to consolidate all of our family’s important Christmas traditions into one spot.

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My family would like to share our holiday traditions with your family so that you can also have a simple, yet meaningful Advent season this year.

We changed our Christmas traditions without changing our values

Those cute Lego and Playmobil Advent calendar boxes with mystery pieces are very enticing, but they are kind of pricey. And while fun, they don’t really add anything meaningful to our lives, right?

Plus, with 6 kids, one tiny little toy per day just led to bickering and all-around unhappiness. And can you imagine trying to patrol coordinate six different advents calendars every single day for a month?

So one year we tried something completely different. And we loved it. This is our original Advent Tree from 2014.

Our New Christmas Traditions

We created our own type of Advent calendar that incorporated all of our devotionals, Bible reading, and Christmastime activities into one place.

I planned out in advance which days we’d do the different activities (i.e. making cookies or going ice skating) and intentionally put those cards into that day’s bag. Then our schedule and Christmas season instantly became much less stressful because I wasn’t trying to fit it all in at the last minute!

I could finally stop worrying about “fitting” in all of the fun Christmastime activities that I wanted our family to do because they were already planned for days where it would work for our family and schedule.

I bought 25 tiny paper bags and filled each bag with these items:

• a Bible verse from the Christmas story or Jesse Tree story
• a Jesse Tree ornament
• an Advent Activity card
• occasionally a piece of candy or small trinket for each child

Next, my husband made a wooden Advent tree to hang the bags on out of an old (FREE) pallet that he’d found. We hung the bags on the “tree” with clothespins. Then each day during Advent, the kids would open that day’s bag which had everything we needed for the day.

Keep reading to learn how to make your own Advent tree that is inexpensive in materials, but rich in love and holiday spirit.

Christmas Traditions: Making an Advent Tree

My husband wrote down the instructions so you can make a pallet tree just like ours if you want. Get the materials and cutting lists, plus the step-by-step directions in the Advent Tree Instructions in the Free Resource Library.

Alternatively, you could hang a piece of yarn or string up and clip the bags to the yarn to make an Advent garland. Or get an inexpensive 3-foot artificial tree from a discount store and clip your bags onto it. Or make up your own “tree” and create something that reflects you and your family!

Advent Tree Calendar Bags

Advent actually varies in length each year between 22 and 28 days, depending on where Christmas falls on the calendar. To make it simpler, we put 25 clothespins on our wooden advent tree and just start each year on December 1.

Making the Bags

First, I bought my mini paper bags at Hobby Lobby in the birthday party aisle, where they also had other colors, like white with gold dots. I just use the brown kraft paper colored ones because it matches my Christmas decorations. They are just like these from Amazon.

Next, I labeled the Advent bags with these Advent Number Tags that I printed onto red paper. You can get your own copy of the Advent Number Tags in the Christmas Traditions Advent Tree Printables, which also includes the Advent Activity Cards and Calendar plus the DIY Advent Tree instructions in one easy download. Get your Christmas Traditions Advent Tree Printables in the Whole Child Resource Store.

In the past, I’ve used gold, green, or ivory paper for the tags, just depending on what matches our other Christmas decor best that year. (Confession: I’ve inherited a ton of Christmas decor and there’s too much to use it all each year, so I just rotate through it every year. LOL)

Now you need to fill your Advent Tree Bags.

Filling Your Advent Tree Bags (aka Your Custom Advent Calendar)

Advent Bible Verses and Memory Cards

You can use any set of Advent-themed Bible verses as a daily Bible verse for your Advent Tree bags.

I made a set of Advent Daily Bible Memory Verse Cards to double as daily Bible verses and as memory verses. I matched these cards to coordinate with the Jesse Tree Readings below.

The Bible verses all use the Easy-to-Read version of the Bible to make it easier for early readers to read and memorize. You can find the cards as a part of the Jesse Tree Bible Printables Packet in the Whole Child Homeschool Resource Store.

Printable Advent Activity Cards

The Advent Activity Cards have simple, yet very meaningful, activities designed to become your family’s Christmas traditions. These activities focus on spending quality time with your family without costing a ton of money. Some activities include baking cookies and then taking them to a neighbor or elderly friend; playing cheesy holiday movie bingo; or listening to The Christmas Carol by Dickens.

The Advent Activity Cards come in both colored and printer-friendly black and white sets of smaller cards. And there are extra blank cards for you to write in your own family Christmas tradition if one of the pre-made cards doesn’t work for your family this year.

Plus, there’s also a printable activity calendar if you’d rather use that instead of the individual cards. You can get your Advent Activity Cards as part of the Christmas Traditions Advent Tree Printables in the Whole Child Resource Store.

Here are some additional Advent activities for kids that coordinate with the Jesus Storybook

Jesse Tree Devotions

I include our Jesse Tree ornaments in our Advent Bags, which we hang back on the tree after we read that day’s story from our Jesse Tree book.

If you don’t already have a favorite Jesse Tree book, you can use one of these options. You can use the Jesse Tree Bible Readings Printable in the Whole Child Homeschool Resource Store. It’s a part of the Jesse Tree Bible Printables Packet. The Jesse Tree Bible Readings printable tells you what story to read each day and what Bible verses to use.

Or you can get one of these Jesse Tree books to use.

God With Us: A Family Advent Celebration by Catherine Pawlak Beautiful photographs of felt ornaments along with Bible stories, prayers, and extensive activities.

The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean This is the book that my family has been using for the past ten years. It has a separate story that weaves through the Bible stories for each day and has lovely illustrations.

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp This is the Jesse Tree devotional that we’ll be using this year. It has questions for discussion that encourage deeper thinking. My youngest is five now and old enough to participate in our discussions.

Jesse Tree Ornaments

My mom made the felt Jesse Tree ornaments in the above picture for us, but you can make your own (see below) or even buy a set.

Here are some links to {FREE} DIY Jesse Tree ornament instructions and patterns, and even a printable set.

DIY Sculpey clay ornaments

No-sew DIY felt ornaments

DIY hand-sewing felt ornaments

Printable ornaments

More Advent Activities

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