Advent Ideas for Families

We love to take some time and mark the Advent season by spending some time together as a family and reflecting on the meaning of Christmas. The concept of Advent may be new to you or you may be wondering what you should do with your kiddos so today I’m sharing some of our favorite Advent ideas for families with you all.

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

We got this book a few years ago and we have loved reading through it as a family during each night of December. Each day has a reading, Scripture, beautiful picture, and discussion questions to read together as a family. I would say that the readings may be a little too long for younger kids. This is one of my favorite Advent ideas for families but I’d recommend this one for more elementary aged kids and up.

If you go to the website listed in the back of the book she has a lot of free resources for your family to use with the book. You can print off Jesse tree ornaments that match the stories in the book, ornaments that your kids can color, coloring pages to go with the readings, and more. Many kids like to color while listening to a story so that can actually be a great way to do the devotionals as a family, especially for kids who may have a harder time sitting and listening.

Jesse Tree

A Jesse Tree in Christian tradition has been a depiction in art of some form of the ancestors of Jesus. In more recent times people have decorated a tree with ornaments that depict stories of the Bible that are added each day of Advent leading up to the Christmas story. There are a lot of versions of this out there. Like I mentioned above, Ann Voskamp has printable versions of the ornaments on the website for Unwrapping the Greatest Gift or there are many places online where you can purchase ornaments.

I like this DIY Jesse Tree ornament kit you can get on Amazon. There are many options from small shops on Etsy that are cute too.

Little People Nativity Set

We still get this nativity set out every year despite my kids being way too old for this now. But whenever we have little kids over during the season I love that it still gets played with. Absolutely worth the money and I love getting it out every year.

The Bible Project Advent Series

I highly recommend the Bible Project videos and this Advent series is no exception. My tween especially likes their videos. They are short, relevant, and just really well done. There are 4 videos in the Advent series. It focuses in on some of the words we use in the scriptures surrounding the Advent season.

Shepherd on the Search

So basically this comes with a Shepherd and a book that tells about a shepherd who was following the star to find baby Jesus. You can read the book with your children and then each night you hide the shepherd for your kiddos to find him the next morning. And then at Christmas he makes it to the manger. My boys are older now and they take turns being the one to hide it each night.

Advent Coloring Book

A couple of years ago I made a free Advent coloring book that you can download to color with your kiddos. Each page has a scripture reading and a picture to color.

Nativity Coloring Pages

I also made a couple of new pages a couple of years ago. You can grab those Nativity pages here.

God Gave Us Christmas

I love the “God Gave Us…” series of books. They are cute and well written and God Gave Us Christmas is no exception. This is great for preschool-elementary kids.

Veggie Tales Christmas Set

This Veggie Tales set of 7 Christmas stories is so much fun. My boys loved these especially the Merry Larry one.

Christmas Love Letters from God

I have not actually read Christmas Love Letters from God yet but I am requesting it from the library because we love the Easter Love Letters from God and this looks equally good. Typically I don’t recommend things I don’t own too often but the Easter one is so good that I feel like this one will be too.

The Beginner’s Bible Christmas Activity + Sticker Book

Someone gave each of my boys one of these Activity and Sticker Books when they were little and they loved them. Highly recommend for like preschool- early elementary.

Let me know in the comments below if you’d like to share your Advent ideas for families!

More Christmas Fun