Advent is such a special time of year for everyone! It is a wonderful time for celebrating family, friends and our Savior Jesus Christ! Our family loves the holidays and reflecting on Jesus is just as important to us as making memories and traditions! That’s why I created our Scripture Advent Calendar! Keep reading to learn more about it!
OUR SCRIPTURE ADVENT CALENDAR
When I was thinking up ideas for creating our Advent calendar, I loved the idea of having an activity or task for each day, as opposed to prizes or candy. I saw some ideas on Pinterest that included fun activities and some that included bible verses or scripture. I decided to mesh the two together to make our fun new kid-friendly version of a scripture Advent calendar!
FABRIC ADVENT CALENDAR
I had to come up with an idea for the ‘calendar’ itself so I thought of doing sort of a banner or flag style with fabric pockets. This would allow it to be reused again and again, it would be kid-friendly and would be easy to store away!
I designed our calendar with simplicity in mind and used all affordable materials! I found the fabric in the craft section at Wal-Mart, picked up some ribbon and yarn for accents and a simple wooden dowl rod for hanging.
Click here to read all about how we also limited our Christmas gifts to bring Christ back into Christmas!
DIY ADVENT CALENDAR INSTRUCTIONS
This DIY advent calendar is SUPER simple to make. You can machine sew, hand sew or use fabric glue for construction! I had my mother-in-law (master quilter and way more sew-savvy than I!) help me use a machine to sew ours!
MATERIAL SIZES: The back panel for our calendar is 27″W x 35″H and each pocket measures around 4″ square.
- First, just simply cut your fabric to size (keep in mind extra fabric for the hem).
- Next you will hem the edges of all the fabric, including the back panel. This will prevent the fabric from fraying.
- Once all the fabric is hemmed, mark out or pin their placement on the back panel.
- After the pockets are positioned, sew or glue them in place, being sure to leave the tops open to create the pocket!
- You can then chose to be finished or add it to a dowl rod like I did, in which case you will need some ribbon or extra fabric to make the loops to slide the rod through. I used three pieces of 1″ ribbon.
- Finally, we purchased a 3/4″ dowel rod from our local hardware and my husband trimmed it to length.
Your calendar is complete! You can add fun accents and frills if you’d like! I used some yarn tassels and ribbon for a pop of fun! I love how ours turned out, with the fun mix of colors and patterns…and we’ve been using it over for 4+ years now!
Next, we add in the scripture and activity cards!
SCRIPTURE & ACTIVITY ADVENT CARDS
If you are like me, coming up with all of those ideas & activities was a bit daunting! Don’t worry! I put together easy to use cards for you and your family! The cards include a bit of scripture for each day telling the story leading up and including Christ’s birth. This will help your kids become familiar with the story and walk in the footsteps of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and magi!
For fun, I added on activities or tasks on each card. These activities include fun crafts, baking and giving activities, as well as some liturgical fun including the feast days of St. Nicholas and St. Lucy! And the best part, I created an easy printable for you! That way all you have to do is download & print!
FREE PRINTABLE ADVENT CARDS
I love making things easier for families to walk in their faith and to make memories so I put together our Advent cards into a simple printable for you to download and use! Click below to download then simply print, cut and add to your calendar! I recommend using a cardstock paper or gluing them to heavy paper, so they slide easier into the pockets. For fun, I used a whole punch and tied a piece of ribbon to each card to make them easy to pull from the pockets.
OTHER ADVENT ACTIVITIES
The activities included in my Free Scripture Advent Cards are so fun and there is a good variety that are sure to please the family! But in case you are just looking for a few fun Advent activities or want to switch some out, here are a few family activities you could try!
- Family Hug
- Color a Christmas coloring page
- Say one thing you are thankful for
- Make a Christmas countdown paper chain
- Take a picture by the Christmas tree
- Say a special Christmas prayer at bedtime
- Watch a Christmas movie
- Go out to dinner as a family
- Make gifts for teachers/babysitters/postman/dog groomer
- Make reindeer food for Christmas Eve
- Enjoy Christmas candy BEFORE breakfast
OUR FAVORITE TRADITION
Our kids LOVE our Advent calendar and it’s one of our favorite Christmas traditions. I love the memories that we make doing the activities and reading along with the scripture! With the variety of activities, there is really something for each age to enjoy (my kids range from ages 13-newborn!) Each day the kids get so exited to see what is in the calendar!
I would love to see how your family loves using these cards so be sure to comment below if you use them or tag @loveandmessiness on Instagram so I can see them! And let me know if you have any awesome family activities we need to try!
Merry Christmas!
