Last year the kids made a paper chain to keep track of the days of Advent. I don’t mind the chocolate Advent calendars as they were tradition in our house but I wanted them to attach more meaning to the Advent season and the paper chain was a wonderful way to remind them that Christmas was more than a daily chocolate and presents from Santa.

We didn’t make it to church this weekend because of Buddy and weren’t able to get this week’s chain so I went over to Catholic Mom and found the printable Advent chain here.

The site suggests printing out the strips of paper on colored paper but we aren’t that fancy. The kids just colored the strips and put the chain together themselves.

12/2: Light the first candle of your Advent wreath

This was a wreath M made in catechism class last year. It is a paper plate decorated with foam leaves and candle flames and candles made out of wood blocks.

I bought this wreath from the craft fair a few weeks ago. It was a plain gold ring with gold candle holders. A wanted to make paper leaves but ended up going with the red tinsel. I think it’s perfect.