the point has always been the same. First we made a big wooden star that
we painted silver and put twenty four hooks on for the days. I made a
bunch of small oilcloth envelopes with an eyelet in the corner and hung
those on the hooks. Each hook was numbered, so each day we would open
an envelope. Inside were a little cards I had made that had an activity
pictured on them. I used the card making section of a craft store and found
a surprising amount of ideas for Advent fun from those.
This was in the time when our kids were too little to read and the pictures
were more understandable and also more fun. When we had opened an
envelope we left the card hanging in front of it. This made it fun to look at
and remember what we had done already in
December. It was with this Advent Calendar that I learned one of my most
important rules - never put the surprise in the envelope until you KNOW
that you are going to do the thing! Nothing is worse than opening
something that says you are going to get the Christmas tree when your
parents are actually too tired to pull it off. Get used to the fact that this
partying this hard will always be a little slapdash and not overly planned. I
think that is really a gift too because it makes you think on your feet a lot
more. What would be delightful right at this moment, and how can we
make it into Advent fun? This is a habit that is useful year round.
This Calendar also helped us treat as a celebration the things that are
normal Holiday activities. We had a card for pizza night, for popcorn and a
movie, for setting a pretty table, for coloring pictures, making cookies,
painting nails, playing Scrabble, hanging up a wreath, etc. It’s amazing
how little it actually takes to build excitement and joy about Christmas! It’s
familiar to us all to hear “Jesus is the reason for the season” but the
Christian reality is that Jesus is the reason for everything. In Him and
through Him and by Him are all things. Without Him, nothing was made
that was made. It is not at all a theological stretch to celebrate the birth of