The month of December can be a busy one and the meaning of the season can at times get lost. Celebrating Advent helps us to slow down and be intentional in celebrating the true meaning of the holiday season; Jesus.

Ways to be Intentional this Advent Season: Adult Edition

• Be mindful of your calendar and keep space in it for reflection and rest.

• Get your main Christmas preparations done in November. Write a list of all of the Christmas preparations you need to get done before Christmas. Put a star beside the ones that you find the most time-consuming and life-draining. Aim to get the starred ones done before the first Sunday of Advent (December 3).

• Decorate your home  slowly rather than all at once. Let your house mirror the season by slowly bringing in the light of Christmas rather than all at once. Consider putting only one character of your nativity scene up every few days and leaving the Christ Child to be placed in the manger, Christmas Eve or morning.

•  Make or buy an advent wreath and light the candle corresponding with the week of advent nightly before dinner.

• Listen to Advent music: Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music

• Follow an Advent reading Bible Plan.  Here are a couple to get you started.
  • The Jessie Tree
  • Advent Reading Plan
  • Lectionary Advent Readings

• Read an Advent devotional.  Here are a couple to get you started.
  • An Honest Advent
  • Waiting on the Word
  • The Greatest Gift
  • Shadow and Light: A Journey into Advent

• Watch an Advent video series.

Ways to be Intentional this Advent Season: Family Edition

Here is a fun video to explain Advent simply to kids:

Here are some ideas to be more intentional with Advent in your own homes. Let’s be intentional together this Advent season!

• Make an Advent Wreath light the corresponding candle each night during supper. (Week 1 – first candle, week 2 – second etc. Each new week begins on the Sunday of the week). Talk about how Jesus, the light of the world has come and is coming again.

• The Jessie Tree. Each day read about one of the people in Jesus’s family tree and place the corresponding ornament on your very own Jessie Tree. Here are some resources to get you started.
  • Advent Book
  • Printable Ornaments
  • Printable Colouring Pages

• Joseph and Mary Search. Rather than do “Elf on the Shelf,”  hide Joseph and Mary. Starting in advent, hide Mary and Joseph from your nativity scene throughout the house each night and each morning have your kids spot them. 

• ‘Play’ with Nativity Scene. Place Mary and Joseph in one part of your house and have the stable in another. Each day as it gets closer to Christmas, move Mary and Joseph a little closer to the stable.  You can do the same with the wisemen and the shepherds.  You can have them all arrive on Christmas Eve and have Jesus arrive on Christmas Day.

• Advent Family Giving. This is a great way to help both adults and children practice littleness as a preparation for Christ’s coming. You can make your list as long or short as you like. You can also ask your children for their ideas and add them to your family’s list too.
• • Volunteer at a soup kitchen as a family.
  • Write a love letter to your grandparents.
  • Visit a nursing home and visit and love on the elderly who live there.
  • Draw pictures for your neighbours.
  • Send Christmas cards.
  • Act out the live nativity.
  • Sponsor a child.
  • Make goodie bags for the homeless.
  • Get toys for kids who have nothing.
  • Watch “The Nativity Story”
  • Keep a prayer journal during Advent.
  • Reach out to a friend or family member who you haven’t connected with in a while.