Creating a Family Advent Tradition

I knew I wanted to make an Advent calendar for our family and saw many cute ideas online. But it was important for me to keep our Advent celebration focused on Christ. I came across this wonderful online book called The Jesus Advent Devotional: The Jesse Tree Celebration. The devotional is a 25 day journey, each day containing a scripture passage from the Old Testament pointing to the coming of Christ, a family devotion and challenge, and a beautiful illustration to be used as an ornament.

I love the devotional and would like to use it in the future, so I wanted to make my ornaments extra nice and worth saving. I printed the beautiful ornament illustrations onto white card-stock and carefully cut them with a scrapbook style cutting tool that can be found at your local hobby/craft store. These are great to use because you get perfectly straight lines.

Using spray adhesive, I glued the ornament illustration onto Christmas scrapbook paper cut slightly larger than the illustration, and then glued that onto a piece of solid colored card-stock cut slightly larger than the Christmas scrapbook paper. These three layers give the look of a frame, matte, and picture. On the opposite side, I glued the same size square of Christmas scrapbook paper as before, and then glued the number of the corresponding day in the center with a small solid colored card stock "frame" around it. I made the numbers by typing 1 - 25 in a Word document using size 80 font.

After allowing the spray adhesive to dry for 5-10 minutes, I applied Mod Podge to one side with a sponge tipped applicator. After another 5-10 minutes of drying, I applied it to the other side.

Each night, we will light a candle and sit down and read from the devotional.

When we are finished reading, the boys will take turns hanging the ornament for the day.

I am so exited about our new family Advent tradition! I really feel like it will help to keep our focus on Christ above all of the hustle and bustle of the busy holiday season.