The Ultimate Advent Guide for Preschoolers and Toddlers: Advent Trees, Ornaments, 25+ Activities and More

From my earliest days, I loved everything about Christmas. My parents always made it extra special with more presents than we could count under the tree and a big surprise waiting for the three of us when we came down the stairs. I have nothing but happy memories when I think of the joy of Christmas morning during my childhood.

When we had Caleb four years ago, I couldn’t wait to build upon things our parents did, but also add some new traditions for our little family unit (that quickly grew from 2 to 5). He was only a couple months old for his first Christmas season, and we were in the thick of fussy/colic newborn days, so we didn’t start many things then. However, the next year when he had just turned 1, I did what I love to do: research. There are so many things out there it can be overwhelming to say the least.

So here is my round up of research. These are some things we do in regards to celebrating Advent:

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The Tree

We made this Advent/Jesse Tree from this online tutorial and we have very minimal skills and tools when it comes to wood-working. It called for a wooden base, but we adapted it since we have 3 young boys and didn’t want them pulling up on it and taking the bags off constantly by attaching a D ring on the back so we can simply hang it on our wall. You don’t have to make a special tree. You can use anything! An old branch hung on the wall with string coming down for each day would be awesome, a store bought Christmas tree would serve the purpose well, too, or even just some yarn or string hanging up on a wall with bags hanging from it would do the trick. I’ve seven een people use over the door shoe holders (they have 24 spots)- basically, you can use whatever you would like.

For those of you who don’t know what an Advent or Jesse Tree is, the concept comes from Scripture. The word advent means Coming. The Jesse Tree comes from a verse in Isaiah: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1). Jesse, the father of David – the line of Christ.

“The Advent Tree tells the story of God’s redemptive plan for the world through 25 symbols from the Old Testament and New Testament. The symbols trace the heritage of Jesus Christ from the beginning of creation.” – from The Advent Jesse Tree book, which can be purchased here. Side note: there have been many different versions of this idea, this is from the red book copyrighted 1988.  No matter which book you decide to follow, they all have the same general concept: over the days leading up to Christmas read stories, beginning in the Old Testament that point to Jesus. Each day you hang an ornament on the tree that represents the story that you read and discussed.

The Ornaments:

Option 1: Jesus Storybook Bible Free Printable

As far as the ornaments go, the first year we did this, Caleb was 1. I didn’t know if he would even understand, but he actually did more than I thought. We had a crazy busy schedule with me teaching night class and tutoring, and preparing for David to be born a couple months later, so I did the easy thing and printed this free version on line that follows the The Jesus Storybook Bible, a Bible we already owned. It is super simple and effective: read one story each day in the Jesus Story Book Bible and if you do that starting Dec 1, you will land on Christmas at the right time (the birth story/wise men, etc). I just printed the pictures, glued the front and backs together after cutting them out, punched a hole, strung through some yarn and called it good.

You can buy a gorgeous set from crew and co here:

Option 2: Traditional Jesse Tree Ornaments- these go with the red old school book

Last year, some awesome girls in our life bible study class organized an ornament exchange! It was so fun- the goal was to have 25 girls sign up to each make 25 of the same ornament (we each were in charge of 1 day- I painted the earth for Day 1). Then we got together and exchanged our 25 of the same ornaments for one for each day.

There are so many sets you can buy on etsy. I recommend getting a book first and then figuring out which ornaments align with the book you chose to use if you go this route, since some showcase different stories in Scripture than others. We have this The Advent Jesse Tree Book– you can see what ornaments you need here. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make the party due to our crazy life last year with moving, my Maw Maw passing away and having so many appointments for Baby Ethan, so I bought a huge pack of wooden discs at Hobby Lobby. My back up plan was to paint the image on each disk since that would require the least amount of supplies, plus I enjoy painting. You could also print out pictures and modpodge them on the small wooden discs. But, I’m so glad I got to partake in this exchange because these ornaments are such a gift!

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You can even find free printables of ornaments online and have your kids color them and hang those up. I hope to make some this year, and if I do, I will come back and add them here.

Option 3: Family Tree of Christ Cards from Tiny Theologians

There are so many more options- I see a new one pop up every day on instagram- try not to get overwhelmed and just choose something and be faithful to do it.

What’s in the Bags?

I got these small bags from Hobby Lobby, and save them each year. In each bag, I put the ornament, a piece of small candy for each boy, a sticker for each boy, and usually an activity we are doing for the day. This year I’m scattering a few small toys through-out as well. The boys get so excited to open the bags each day! Currently, they keep asking me daily if it’s December.

Advent Activities/Calendar Ideas:

• Wear Santa Hats and take pictures, do a candy cane craft- Tell the story of the candy cane.
• Go to Parade of Lights (we have one near us on the first Sunday in December each year).
• Address your Christmas Cards and bring them to the post office.
• Decorate a Gingerbread House
• Go see Santa (tip Bass Pro for free!)
• Bake Christmas cookies/fudge/spicy pretzels or crackers/trail mix/ whatever your family tradition is
• Bring goodies to your neighbors
• Sing Christmas Carols at an Assisted Living Center
• Make snowmen pancakes
• Go to a Christmas Tree Farm
• Go drive around looking at Christmas Lights in your jammies- even better: put your kids to bed, then wake them up and surprise them with going on an adventure!
• Hot cocoa/popcorn and Christmas Movies
• Read Christmas stories by the fire
• Read and act out the Christmas story, use your Fisher-Price Little People
• Give to someone in need- a coat, a prayer, operation Christmas child (the boxes are due in mid Nov., Angel Tree, etc)
• Go Christmas shopping as a family
• Take your kids to the dollar store and have them choose presents for family members
• Make homemade ornaments (clay or salt dough)
• Go to Santa’s Wonderland, or something similar in your hometown
• Check out Christmas books from the library
• Attend a Christmas play or celebration
• Do a Jingle Bell Jog as a family
• Make a Christmas play list and sing and dance as a family
• Open Christmas Jammies
• Give a present to your mail man or lady
• Make a birthday cake/cupcakes or just put a candle in any dessert and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus
• Leave reindeer food and cookies/milk for Santa.

Other Resources/Ideas :

Some fun books from Usborne (more for toddler age):

Touchy Feely Nativity

Nativity Flap Book

First Sticker Nativity Book

That’s Not My Reindeer

Sally Lloyd-Jones’ (author of the Jesus Story Book Bible)beautiful book (my boys LOVE this one all year long):

Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story

There are also all these “the legend of the _____” books (candy cane, stocking, tree, St. Nicholas) that are stories that point to the true meaning of Christmas. **I have not read these myself, but I hope to get at least one this year to add to our collection. I love the idea of explaining to my boys the why behind many of the traditions that we do.

The Legend of the Candy Cane by Walburg, Lori (1997) Hardcover

The Legend of the Christmas Tree

Legend of the Christmas Stocking

Fisher-Price Little People Nativity

The First Christmas: The Birth of Jesus (on DVD- a little cheesy, but my boys love it)- if you have amazon prime or a right now media account, you can watch all the super books there.

We also have done The Christmas Star from Afar  the last few years and my boys really enjoy it. I move the star each night and the boys have to find the star and move the Wise Men to it.

On Christmas Eve, you move the star to be over the manger and the Wise Men to find Baby Jesus (even though technically…they didn’t get to him until he was about 2 and at his home, but you know.. it still works).

There is also Shepherd On the Search Activity Set and something I keep seeing show up on my social media feeds called the Giving Manger. I just can’t take on another thing right now, haha. So many good options! (Like so many things in motherhood- sometimes it’s paralyzing, but that’s a post for another day).

Shepherd’s Servant Pouches:  The idea behind these is you give each of your children a special pouch and hang them somewhere (perhaps on the mantel, from a shelf). All month long you look for opportunities to praise your children for their behavior. You can give them a small amount of money money when you see them think about others and not just themselves, when they show kindness or display servant heartedness.  Just before Christmas, you can let them take part of their money to give an intentional gift. One idea is to use the Compassion International Gift guide and choose to meet someone’s needs. Another is to invest in a Christmas Care Package through Voice of the Martyrs (it’s better to purchase these a couple weeks before Christmas).

And I just learned about the Giving Manger recently- it seems like a great way to encourage kindness and servant-heartedness in your children.

Christmas cards on your table. I LOVE Christmas cards. It gives me so much joy to go to the mailbox in December and find pictures of my beautiful friends and family. And let’s be real, it’s so much more fun to read those than it is bills. A great idea from Lisa Holcomb, who leads Motherwise and Houston’s First Baptist (you can find her awesome blog here) is to save those Christmas Cards each year and place them in a basket/container on your table. Each night at dinner, take one out and pray for the family.   She saves her previous years by hole punching them and making each year into a book: brilliant!

I’ve also seen The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition done with beautiful intentionality. We don’t do Elf on the Shelf currently, but this is a great way to do it, and we may at some point. If you do Elf on the Shelf, just a word of caution: when we tell our kids that in order to get gifts they must be good (works based), this is the opposite of the gospel (grace based). In our culture, it is extremely hard to understand that we are not good. None of us- that is why Jesus came. Good is a relative term and us being good, thinking we deserve something we don’t can lead to pride and a host of other things- it can make us be in the position of the older brother or the rich young ruler, thinking we don’t really truly need Christ. That being said, you can totally do Elf on the Shelf without making it works based. A wise woman I know from MOPS created this amazing devotional to go along with their elf. Her elf has been a teaching elf all along, and helps teach her girls many great things, with a giving mindset. Here are a few photos of her devotional guide:

Felt Tree for Toddlers. I made ours (it’s super easy!), but this one (3ft DIY Felt Christmas Tree Set + 26pcs )is less than 10 bucks on amazon! Side note: some people make their Jesse Tree a felt tree- you could do that for a two in one!

Also, I hang ours on the wall with these.

The Step 2 Children’s Tree:

Step2 My First Christmas Tree with Bonus Ornaments

To conclude:

I always hesitate a little sharing these things because I’m one of those people that sees a good idea and adds it to my never list of items I should do. Just because it’s a good idea doesn’t mean you have to do it or should do it. Above all else, this season is about seeing and savoring Jesus, something that is for me, the hardest to do this time of year. So don’t take these ideas and add them to your plate of shoulds- but please feel free to use any or all of them if you think they would bless you or your family.

I shared this post on social media recently (here):

Oh and don’t forget advent readings for mom- I’ve done sacred holidays (He Is: An Advent Study on the Attributes of God ) in the past and really like it and last year did Gentle Leading’s free advent devotional for moms that comes straight to your inbox. I’ve also heard good things about the she reads truth one.

Other posts you may like:

• Fall Family Fun Bucket List
• Resurrection Eggs and The Gospel (Easter Activities)
• The Ultimate Tantrum Survival Guide and Other Bonus Parenting Tips
• Prescription for Contentment

If you found this blog post helpful, please share so other Mamas can see!