Daily Family Advent Devotions during Advent

Our family incorporated nightly advent devotions throughout the month of December. Sometimes we'd do it at the beginning of our homeschool day. Sitting down as a family every day communicates to your kids that Jesus is a really big deal. You need to sit down with your family at least five times during the Advent season to focus on Jesus (each Sunday evening and once on Christmas eve or Christmas day). Although, I recommended daily devotions for the four weeks of Advent to really focus on Christ.

One huge blessing that this had for our family was that it trained us to be in the practice of nightly family devotions that we continued throughout the rest of the year. We had not been able to commit to this before because committing to it nightly seemed overwhelming but committing to it nightly for a month seemed more practical. However, once we were in the routine, we continued it for the remainder of our the years with our kids living at home. I feel this was one of the more important ways we passed along a genuine faith to our children.

One thing I really enjoyed was singing some of the popular Christmas carols or hymns. Some of the guides I recommend have suggestions for hymns that can be sung as part of our daily devotions. Here are some guides that I have used or can recommend:  Celebrating Jesus at Christmas by Kimberly Ingalls Reese Christ in Christmas: A Family Advent Celebration By Dobson, Swindoll, Boice, Sproul Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda White (includes 24 days of Scripture reading, ornament crafts, talking points and activity ides for preschool - elementary age) Getting Ready for Christmas: A Daily Advent Prayer and Activity Book for the Family by Yolanda Browne (best for preschoolers) What God Wants for Christmas: An Interactive Kid-Friendly Nativity Countdown to Christmas by Lisa Appelo Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp

Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional by Asheritah Ciucli Everyday Emmanuel Devotion and Activity Guide: https://whatsinthebible.com/everyday-emmanuel/ Focus on the Family’s Knowing Him By Name Advent Calendar https://www.focusonthefamily.com/…/knowing-him-by-name-adve…

Web-sites with free devotions for Advent (not all are applicable to children) http://www.pghpresbytery.org/news/pdfs/advent_devotional.pdf (for families with kids 3 to 10) http://www.familymanweb.com/advent https://thepurposefulmom.com/…/15-bible-verses-to-teach-kid… (Advent ideas, lessons, and scripture to print & teach kids) http://stmarysimsbury.org/jesse-tree (Jesse Tree) https://www.rca.org/resources/jesse-tree-family-devotions (Jesse Tree ornaments and devotion to go along with) http://keepinglifecreative.com/…/the-jesse-tree-advent-proj… https://www.cru.org/…/life-and-relationships/holidays/adven… https://lp.billygraham.org/advent/ http://www.raisingarrows.net/…/free-advent-devotionals-for…/ https://kidsministry.lifeway.com/…/free-download-family-ad…/ https://sites.google.com/site/adventbiblestudy2016/home https://www.mamaslearningcorner.com/studying-the-birth-of-…/ https://www.desiringgod.org/books/good-news-of-great-joy

I also have a daily guide that I developed using some free online resources and a little bit of creativity. These will be available in a future post.

What ideas do you have for Advent devotions?