I had been looking for some kind of advent calendar to do with my young kids that would keep the focus on Jesus during the holiday season. I also wanted them to understand how the Christmas story fits into the overall narrative of the Bible -the reason that Jesus came to earth. I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for that was within our budget, so I decided to make one!! And then I decided to share it, since that is the spirit of the season!
So all of the printables and the script are included below for our advent calendar. We call it “The Road to Christmas”.
First, we put up the 4 pages of “the road” that serve as our backdrop. Everyday, the kids can stick the characters that pertain to that day’s part of the storyline to the road. We start back in the Garden of Eden and explain why Jesus had to come, continue on through His birth, and right through to His return to Heaven and the coming of Pentecost. It’s the full timeline of Jesus. It’s also very simple, so it’s good for younger children or ESL students.
So if you are looking for something to help your kids understand the true meaning of Christmas (maybe your Elf doesn’t know his Bible stories?!), you’re welcome to download it and walk through it with your little ones! I would say it’s most appropriate for younger children, ages 2-6, but you could adapt it as you like. Or even color them and use them as finger or popsicle stick puppets!
And feel free to trace and make as many shepherds, angels, disciples as your heart desires! (My 2-year old was distressed that I had only made 1 angel-where were the others singing?!)
Along with the pdf printable, I’ve included the basic script that we’re using to tell the story each day. I originally wrote the storyline to be broken up into portions over a 2-week period, but you can adjust it so that it works best for your family -break it up so that you read a portion everyday of Advent or combine the portions together and just do it the week before Christmas, or you could even go start Christmas Day and continue until the end of December since the storyline continues through Pentecost.
I pray that it brings you and your little ones closer to the Hero of Christmas and reminds us all again just what a beautiful Savior He is! Merry Christmas!
(Just click on each picture to bring up the full-size PDF.)
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