December Saints Days and ADVENT!
Equipping Catholic Families for December Saints!
Advent begins with the first Sunday of Advent on December 1st!
Here is our monthly summary of crafts and family traditions related to the Monthly Devotion, Key Feast Days, and the appropriate Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Advent!
We’ve got a very special Advent Calendar Craft Kit available and it combines the Jesse Tree, O Antiphons and December Saints Days, all in one!
It also includes 36 Jesse Tree / O Antiphon / Christmas ornaments and the St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena Prayer Tracker…and all of these you can print at home!
Jesse Tree / O Antiphon Advent Calendar, Ornaments and Novena Craft Kit PDF
Jesse Tree / O Antiphon Advent Calendar PDF
It’s not too late to get a little Christmas Shopping done AND jumpstart your Advent Prayer!
Buy Prompt Me to Pray for your best buddy who prays, and pick up the Prompt Me to Pray through Advent and Prompt Me to Pray through Christmas booklets to bump up your prayer right into the new year!
See the
Prompt Me to Pray through Advent and Christmas Bundle
*The Prompt Me to Pray Booklets
are available by PDF or printed and shipped to you!
Key Feast Days in December:
- St Francis Xavier (December 3)
- St John Damascene (December 4)
- St Nicholas (December 6)
- St Ambrose (December 7)
- Immaculate Conception (December 8)
- St Juan Diego (December 9)
- Our Lady of Loretto (December 10)
- Our Lady, Queen of Angels (December 11)
- St Damasus I (December 11)
- Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12)
- Bambinelli Sunday (December 12)
- St Lucy (December 13)
- St John of the Cross (December 14)
- O Antiphons (December 17-23)
- Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dec 18)
- St Abraham, St Isaac, St Jacob (December 20)
- St Thomas, St Peter Canisius (December 21)
- St John of Kanty (December 23)
- The Birth of Jesus (December 25)
- St Stephen (December 26)
- St John Apostle (December 27)
- Holy Innocents (December 28)
- St Thomas Becket (December 29)
- Feast of the Holy Family (December 30)
Check out the St Nick Bundle at the Arma Dei Shoppe for great stocking stuffers!
Get FIVE decks for just $48!
St Nick’s Shoe Stuffer Bundle
Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Advent!
- Anticipating Advent: Prep for Advent: Summary of Crafts and Activities
- Keep Christ in Christmas: read Him, look for Him, pray to Him, visit him, share Him, give for Him; live for Him Keep Christ in Christmas
The Advent Calendar
The Advent Calendar is a great way to countdown the days until Christmas.
Our own Jesse Tree and O Antiphon Advent Calendar is available by PDF and includes SO much!
This PREMIUM Craft Kit offers black and white templates to help you countdown (and pray!) through the days of Advent, with:
+one Letter-sized (8.5″x11″) fully illustrated Jesse Tree/O Antiphon/Saints Advent Calendar*
+one oversized (10″x15″) fully illustrated Jesse Tree/O Antiphon/Saints Advent Calendar*
+36 double-sided (2.5″) fully illustrated Jesse Tree/O Antiphon Advent Ornaments
+one fully illustrated Catholic Anticipation Prayer / St. Andrew’s Novena Prayer Counter
*ADAPTED for Advent 2024!
Advent Calendar, Ornaments and Novena Tracker
Advent Calendar (in two sizes)
You’ll find lots of chocolate covered ones in the stores now, but you can make your own and fill it with dollar store Nativity figures, holy medals, Saint pegs, Super Saints, printable Advent Quest challenges and 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:
- Advent (+Lent) Quest
- Advent Prayer Pockets
- Nativity Figures
- Super Saints Quizzing Cards
- Painted Saints
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!
If you don’t want to just print yourself our BRAND NEW, SUPER EASY Jesse Tree Advent Calendar
Here are some of my other favorite Jesse Tree kits and tips:
- Our Family Jesse Tree from Faith and Fabric
- 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
- Jesse Tree O Antiphon Advent Calendar Printable by Arma Dei
The Advent Wreath
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.
We’ve also used Dollar Store Votive candles and dressed them up in purple and pink!
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.
DIY Advent Wreath with Dollar Store Votives
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:
- Prompt Me to Pray through Advent
- Prompt Me to Pray through Christmas
- Advent (+Lent) Quest
- Advent Prayer Pockets
- All Season Prayer Bank
- Prayer Journal Prompts
- Journal Prayers and Novenas
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.
This year we hosted a Sock Baby Jesus Workshop! Every kid made their own Sock Baby Jesus and we even made a couple more to give to a few other families in our Parish!
Preparing the Nativity
Christmas Gifts
- Kelly Saints Christmas Ornaments
- Reproducible One-of-a-Kind Gifts
- Stash of Kelly Saints Blessing Cards
Looking for a gift for your Mom or best friend?
Check out our Catholic Stamps at the
Prayer Impressions Journal Stamp Shoppe at Arma Dei!
We now have 145 Consecration, Prayer Journal, Accountability, Signature, Saints, Seasons, Sacraments and Rosary Stamps!
Make sure you’re subscribed to get next month’s summary of Catholic Crafts and Family Traditions!
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