I decide to write out my heart behind creating my family advent calendar. I keep telling my husband that if people just understood the purpose and heart behind this product I believe it would make it into more homes! I’m not here to make a ton of money, you’ll notice that everything else on the blog is absolutely free and I love being able to provide quality lessons at no cost to you! I’m here to give you a little taste of the WHY behind creating and selling this Family Advent Calendar! It’s the ONLY product I sell, and trust me if I could give it away for free, I would!
It all begin about 5 years ago in 2017 when I was working at a small church in La Jolla. I have a heart for families, and I know how busy the Christmas season can get, so I started brainstorming about a way to encourage connectedness in December. I also love Advent calendars and the idea of a count down to Christmas and the reason for Advent and Christmas, Jesus!
I decided to combine my brainstorming plus my love for Advent and started to create my Family Advent Calendar. I wanted to keep it Jesus focused and family focused. I made sure to have a verse on each card and then a simple sentence from the Christmas story. The verse and one sentence would make it manageable to read for busy parents and only take a few minutes a day without losing the Jesus focus. On the other hand the simple sentence could spark more questions and conversations if desired!
After I decided what each day card would have I went ahead and started thinking of fun Christmas activities that were LOW prep and simple for parents. That was important to me, to make sure it was low prep to not add one more thing or activity to parent’s list. My desire for these activities were to create connectedness, memories, keep the focus off presents, incorporate serving others, and have FUN as a family.
Now, I’ve come up with 50 activities! This gives parents so much freedom when it comes to the activities and makes the reusable part even better, change up the activities each year! The activities range from simple things like have a dance party with Christmas music to donate an old toy to make Christmas cookies. So many options that are low prep, the most prep you’ll need to do is buying things like hot chocolate, popcorn or craft supplies!
Have a family tradition you already do each year? I’ve also included 4 blank cards to write down your own activities! That was an important aspect as well, to be able to personalize the calendar by adding your own traditions or coming up with new ones.
BONUS: I’ve done the work for you, parents! If you know you are going to decorate your Christmas tree on a certain day, put it on that day for the Advent Calendar and bam, it’s set! Same with Pajama day, going to look at Christmas lights…you set the day to make it easy for your busy schedule while still creating special memories with your kids.
I am really proud of this product, it has evolved in the past 5 years and I think this one is the best one yet! I’ve upgrade the cards to card material rather than just card stock, and it all still comes in a box that can be stored away nicely for the next year!
My desire is that kids look forward to this Advent Calendar each year. Not only that, but that parents also look forward to spending quality time with their kiddos creating memories, fun and reading the Christmas story.
If you would like to purchase a Family Advent Calendar, hop on over to my product page here! I truly hope and pray it blesses you and your family!
