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It’s wild to me to think we’ve done our own family advent for over a decade now. It feels like we just started trying out a few traditions with tiny kids, and now it feels like we have several things that have stuck around! Most of these are things we’ve done for at least 7-8 years, with a couple of new things for this year.
Here’s what we do on our special December 1 Advent kickoff:
We don’t really have a set menu for this! I do like to set a pretty table – I got a new Geometry tablecloth this year (bonus points for being easily washable, stain resistant, and no iron) and dinner napkins. (Discount code PREETHI.) Plus, we’ll set out some candles to help it feel festive. Other than that, we’ll just do a normal meal, but may add in some non-alcoholic mulled wine punch to help it feel festive!
We always hand out our December 1st advent box this evening! HERE are more details about it. This year, I’m thinking I’ll set everything out at each place setting instead of putting it all in a box. Here’s what we’re including this year (2025):
One of our favorite parts of December is our daily advent activities! After dinner, we’ll start these – it usually only takes about 10 minutes total, but it’s such a sweet way for our family to come together each evening and I really love it. We like to kick things off with watching this video – it’s such a sweet reminder of why we personally celebrate Christmas.
After that, we do a few of our daily advent activities:
We’ll also explain our service/kindness advent this year – we’ll actually do this in the mornings by reading a quick scripture from this Christmas ABCs advent, and giving the kids an idea of a simple act of service they can do that day that’s related to the day’s letter.
Something new we’re adding in this year is family kindness jars! We could use a little more sibling thoughtfulness around here, so I decided to set up a jar for each kid. Then throughout the month, anytime someone does something kind for someone else, they can write it on a piece of paper and put it in that person’s jar. Then on Christmas morning, each kid can read all the kind things that others did for them throughout the month. We’ll see how this goes!
We also have a few special and fun activities throughout the month – a hot chocolate night, going to see the Nutcracker, going caroling, etc. We’ll talk through all the month’s activities so everyone is on the same page!
Finally, we’ll finish off the evening by pulling out our very favorite bells to sing a Christmas song or two together. This is one of our family’s favorite activities in December! Would make a wonderful family gift, too. We don’t do this every night, but the kids do request it probably every night. 😉 (Discount code PREETHI.)
