Equipping Catholic Families with Advent Crafts & Family Traditions

The Feast of Christ the King is coming up! We’ve got a Craft Kit for that!

Easy as Abacus Divine Mercy plus Christ the King Novena

The Feast of Christ the King…is the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year,

which means that Advent will be here very soon!

It’s time to dust off the Advent Candles (make sure we have them!) and the Jesse Tree ornaments and the Advent Calendar!

The Advent Calendar

The Advent Calendar is a great way to countdown the days until Christmas. You’ll find lots of chocolate covered ones in the stores now, but you can make your own and fill it with dollarstore Nativity figures, holy medals, Saint pegs, Super Saints, printable Advent Quest challenges and of course your favorite treats or chocolates. There are so many ways to make an Advent Calendar (including this one we made years ago) and we found 35 [Awesome} DIY Advent Calendars here.

Fill up your Advent Calendar with faith-filled toys, treats and prayers:

Here are a couple Liturgically-Correct Calendars you can print at home and use year after year:

Adjustable Liturgical Calendar
Communion of Saints Perpetual Calendar
Calendar Saint Stickies (461 stickers with our original artwork!)

*with Our Family Jesse Tree ornaments from Faith and Fabric

The Jesse Tree

The Jesse Tree is a wonderful faith-filled activity with Biblical symbols and figures and readings for each day of Advent. Jesus’ Lineage unfolds each day, leading up to His Birth on December 25th. You can make a nicely crafted banner like our The Family Handprint Jesse Tree and bring it out for Advent and Lent each year!

Here are some other awesome Jesse Tree kits and tips:

Our Family Jesse Tree from Faith and Fabric
Jesse Tree Treasures
Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange
My Jesse Tree: The Ultimate Guide to Making a Jesse Tree
Printable 3-D Jesse Tree Ornaments by Drawn2BCreative!
The Mosaic Jesse Tree at To Jesus, Sincerely

The Advent Wreath

We have a fake wreath…and every year we have the opportunity to create a fresh one with our Women’s Ministry at our Parish. It can be tricky getting those 3 purple and 1 white candles at the last minute, so we often pick them up throughout the year when we see them…or we’ve been known to tie purple and pink ribbons around white candles, in a pinch. Here’s an easy DIY Advent Wreath with just a little trip to the dollar store.

One year, we made this Mailbox Blessings Advent Wreath and wrote little notes to each other throughout Advent, placing them in these adorable little mailboxes.

Advent Prayers

Advent is an excellent opportunity to ramp up our family prayers…morning, before or after meals, around the Advent Wreath, in the car (bustling around to different events) or at bedtime!

Here are some of our prayerful craft kit printables to get you started:

New Family Traditions

This time of year there is a lot of talk about different activities and family traditions to help focus Advent within the family. Don’t try them all at once! Choose one that’s right for you and get your kids involved to keep it going throughout Advent. If good deeds and sacrifices are part of your Advent tradition…consider Nesting…for Sock Baby Jesus.