Truth in the Tinsel

Last year, I wanted to do something with the kids at Christmas time that would teach them why we celebrate Christmas. I ordered some advent materials which turned out to be way over their heads (and boring) and then someone directed me to a great little booklet called Truth in the Tinsel. Each day has a devotion as well as instructions to make an ornament related to the scripture. I purchased the booklet, but never got around to doing it. As we got closer to December, I started seeing stuff about the booklet again and decided that we were going to do it this year! I gathered all the materials to make the ornaments and I even made a special trip to the book store to buy a new kids' Bible (We already had a Storybook Bible, but I needed something with numbered verses).

We kept up pretty well for the first nine days, and then, like I usually do, I slacked off a bit. Both kids got sick, Keven got sick, I got sick, and we just didn't quite do all the days. But we did complete 14 of the 24 devotions which isn't too shabby! I'm not sure I did a great job with the devotion part and explaining how everything we read relates to Christmas, but at least we got to spend some time together and read the Bible.

The kids really seemed to enjoy making the ornaments. I was very surprised at how much Ethan got into it. He really liked gluing things, especially with glitter glue! He would often ask me in the morning if he could make his ornament. I always told him we needed to wait until Kaitlin got home from school and then I felt bad on the days we never got around to doing it. Kaitlin enjoyed it too, but not quite as much as Ethan! Most of the ornaments probably won't hold up for more than a year or two and I couldn't bring myself to throw any of them away, so I decided to take some pictures of them. My labels don't show up that well in the pictures unfortunately.

Day 1: Light, Day 2: Kingdom, Day 3: Zechariah, Day 4: Gabriel, 

Day 5: Mary, Day 6: Mary & Elizabeth, Day 7: Song 

A couple of notes: The top row of ornaments is Ethan's and the bottom row is Kaitlin's. Each day, you are supposed to get a clue from your advent calendar and when you hear the clue during the scripture, you cheer. The kids really got into this on the third day when the clue was "Zechariah." They would cheer really loud "Zechariah! Zechariah! Zechariah!" Actually, one of them may randomly bust out with the Zechariah cheer at any moment! On day 6, Kaitlin made Mary and Ethan made Elizabeth. The instructions were to glue the circle on top of the dress so that it looks like a pregnant belly. Kaitlin glued her circle under the dress because "bellies are private."

Day 8: Sun, Day 9: Joseph, Day 12: Census, Day 13: Bethlehem, 

Day 15: Manger, Day 16: Cloths, Day 18: Angels

Kaitlin was sick with strep on Day 8, so she wasn't very enthusiastic about making her sun. I thought it was cute that they picked the same colors for Mary, Joseph, and the angels. I offered them 3 different colors of felt for Mary and Joseph. Kaitlin picked purple for Mary and Ethan followed suit. Ethan picked orange for Joseph, and Kaitlin picked a purple button for her angel. You can also purchase printable ornaments that go along with the book. I decided to use the printable ornament for Day 15 because the craft was a little too difficult for my kids.