This time of year is SO fun… adding kids to the mix just makes it that much more exciting! During the month of November, we did a “Thank You Jar” with Hunter (2.5 years old).
Each day, we wrote down something he said that he was thankful for (fire trucks and choo choo trains were usually at the top of his list), and then he got to color the slip of paper. We rolled it up, and put it back in the Thank You Jar (which he pronounced, “Thank You Dryer”… we have no idea why). At first, he didn’t really get it, but as each day in November went by, the more he caught on to the concept of sharing something that he was thankful for. This helped me realize that, even at 2.5 years old, Hunter could grasp more concepts than I had realized.
As November came to an end, my wheels started spinning of something similar that we could do for Christmas. Since he loved doing the Thank You Jar, and it helped him grasp the concept of thankfulness, I wanted to do something in the month of December to help him grasp why we really celebrate Christmas- Jesus’ birthday. Yes, there will be Santa, Christmas lights, and nights spent watching Christmas movies (Elf is my personal favorite!), but it’s so important to us that Christ stays at the center of our Christmas. So, I went to Pinterest (of course!). I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something simple to set up (I am NOT crafty), something that would take just a few minutes each day, and something that a 2.5 year old would understand and enjoy. I combined a few different ideas into something that worked for us, and this is what we came up with:
The felt Christmas tree with felt ornaments idea came from Pinterest. The “spin” that we added to it was writing a different Bible verse on each ornament.
Each Bible verse has something to do with Jesus- a prophecy of His birth, a verse surrounding the story of His birth, or a verse about why Jesus came to earth (see link below for verses). Each day (at least that’s the plan), we will pull out another ornament, read the verse, talk about it a little bit, and then Hunter gets to put it on his tree (and he can re-decorate it over and over again!). Another side benefit is that we can discuss shapes and colors, too!
I pray your Christmas is filled with lots of fun memories, traditions, and the love of Christ. Also, I absolutley LOVE hearing about other peoples’ Christmas traditions. I would love if you comment below and share some of your favorites!
p.s. Shout out to my incredible husband for helping me with this project! His Christmas tree drawing skills are awesome!
diariesofadaughter.com 