Download the checklist here!
Advent is almost here! Can you believe it? Check out my list of activities below to help you and your family have the most fruitful Advent yet. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
1.) Order an Advent Devotional
Order a personal devotional, or one for each person in your family! Blessed is She has family devotionals, with journals for kids. I also have a free Advent devotional here!
2.) Take Family Photos and Prepare Christmas Cards
No need for a fancy photographer! An iPhone on the countdown setting and a makeshift-tripod will work just fine! Print them onto Catholic Christmas cards from Our Holy Home. (Code SAMCARDS saves you 35% on your order!)
3.) Choose Family Activities and/or Service Project
A few ideas: Holy Heroes’ FREE Advent adventure program, volunteering in your community, hosting a food drive, participating in an Angel Tree gift drive, or Mary on the Mantle, (a Catholic alternative to Elf on the Shelf!)
4.) Prepare for St. Nicholas’s Feast Day
Stock up on your chocolate coins right now (they always sell out!) St. Nicholas can also bring your children small toys and prizes such as chapstick, a St. Nicholas plush doll, candy, fun socks, books, toy cars, hair bows, or crayons/markers.
5.) Plan Your Christmas Meal/Party
I love hosting parties, but sometimes they are a bit much with 6 kids (and I am pregnant with our 7th!) but I do also like to cook, so spending time cooking a big meal in our kitchen is something I look forward to every year. If you’re not big on spending all day in the kitchen, plenty of restaurants offer Christmas meals to-go complete with all the fixin’s. Even just ordering a turkey or ham and making the sides yourself is a huge time-saver!
6.) Purchase an Advent Calendar
Last year I invested in a cloth Advent calendar for our Godchildren, so each year it can be reused. I send them treats or mini prizes for their parents to fill the Advent calendar with so our Godchildren can open up a little surprise each morning in the days leading up to Christmas! You can also buy disposable ones. Such a good visual to help children count down the days until Jesus is born (and quells the “how many more days until Christmas?” question you’re going to get 5 times a day. 😉
7.) Research Christmas Cookie Recipes
I don’t know about your family, but my mother-in-law goes all out for her Christmas cookies. She has graciously passed on some of her famous cookie recipes to me, so I can recreate them at our house since we live 10 hours away. Some of my personal favorites include spritz cookies, sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes, mint brownies, snickerdoodles, and thumbprint cookies.
8.) Take Out Christmas Decorations
I forget what Christmas decorations we have every year, so it’s helpful for me to pull them out a little early so I can see what we have and what I need to purchase. Advent candles always need replenishing, and our Christmas light strings usually only half-work.
9.) Address and Stamp Christmas Cards
Pro-tip: Order stickers with your name and address pre-printed onto them, so you can just stick and go instead of writing it all out 100 times. This also prevents any excuses to not get them sent out on time this year!
10.) Decide on Your Family’s Advent Prayer Routine
An Advent prayer routine can be as simple as a short song your family sings before dinner while you light your Advent wreath, a novena, or a more in-depth routine like praying the Liturgy of the Hours each day. Hallow and Ascension are two great prayer apps you can download with Advent prayers and videos as well. There are also the O Antiphons!
11.) Finish Christmas Shopping
This has been a goal for myself I’ve done for the past few years. Getting my Christmas shopping done before Advent begins allows me to truly be present for the season. No more rushing around or last-minute stress.
12.) Pull Out Your Advent Wreath (or Buy One!)
If you don’t have one or need a new one, Be a Heart carries beautiful ones. Shining Light Dolls has wooden kid-friendly (read: no flame) ones. Or you can make your own by purchasing an Advent candle making kit!
13.) Set up the Jesse Tree
There are plenty of printable Jesse Tree ornaments online. You an also purchase a Jesse Tree kit, or a book of prayers and reflections, complete with an ornament set, from my friend Colleen Pressprich here.
14.) Plan a Time to Go to Confession
Catholics are required to go to confession once a year. A great time to go is before Christmas! Plan your confession date ahead of time so you can put it on your calendar and stick to it! The last thing you want to be doing is scrambling last minute to squeeze it in (or get there and find the line is a mile long with no back-up plan.)
I hope this list helped you feel more prepared and ready to have your best Advent ever this year!
