If you’re anything like me, you love traditions! I enjoy incorporating old and new traditions with my kids and family, especially around holiday time.  Here are a few that have worked well in our home.  I hope you’ll use some of these ideas to get you started with your own advent traditions.

• Jesse Tree – Set up a Jesse Tree in your home and watch your kids grow excited as they discover a new ornament and coordinating meaning for each day of advent.  You can use anything for the actual tree.  A tabletop Christmas tree or a six-foot wire and anything in between.  Have fun with the ornament making for each day, too.
• Christmas Countdown Socks - These are fun and easy to setup in your home!  Fill each day with a small token like a piece of chocolate or a slip of paper with a fun activity, such as “watch a Christmas movie tonight”.  My kids wake up each morning and jump out of bed so they can check their “socks”!
• Christmas Stories/Books – Here’s a fun idea that makes reading fun again!  Wrap each of your holiday/Christmas books up in festive wrapping paper and each night during advent, have your kids unwrap a book and read it before bedtime!  What a fun way to countdown to Christmas and make sure you get good use of those books!
• The Elf on the Shelf- This is a new tradition we incorporated this year and my kids are already loving it!  The Elf moves to a new spot each day and the kids love to run around to find him.  They are also able to share their special wish lists with him in hopes of getting the message to Santa.  The Elf has also helped tremendously with reinforcing good behavior this time of year!

I hope you are inspired to start new traditions in your own home.  I know that I truly appreciated the traditions my mother made sure were a part of my life as I was growing up.  Your kids will love it too!

So what are some of your holiday or Advent traditions in anticipation of the big day?