The run up to Christmas, traditionally celebrated as Advent, is such a busy time, but also a powerful time to remember, celebrate and absorb the incredible story of when God became a human baby. All families have traditions around Christmas, so all we need to do is be intentional about using them to give everyone opportunity to connect with the story. Here’s a few ideas:

1 Play with a nativity set. You might like to use it as an excuse/opportunity to invest in a new one. Here’s my favourites!

2 Use a candle to create a moment to reflect and pray.

3 Buy a Real Advent Calendar – fairtrade chocolate, a booklet with the story in it and a donation to medical work in Kenya – what’s not to love?

4 Make a pockets Advent calendar. You can get GodVenture Advent Pocket Cards which contains 24 cards with a sentence of the Christmas story on each to put in your pockets. You can buy the pockets from John Lewis among other places (JL has an Advent pockets cushion! Very has a felt tree) or have a look in TKMax. Or use envelopes or socks and peg them onto a piece of ribbon or string. You can fill it with chocolates, a section of the Christmas story on a rolled up piece of paper or pieces from your nativity set like Play Mobil. You choose!

5 Read Christmas books. Collect 24 books and read a new one each day or read a chapter a day of a longer book. Here’s my 24 favourite Christmas books.

6 Introduce the Kindness Elves – a lovely alternative to Elf on the Shelf, encouraging the family to develop their kindness muscles. There’s loads of ideas for this on Pinterest.

7 Make and play with Christmas fuzzy felt. Easy to make, hours of fun.

8 Put on your own nativity play. The script here works for two to two hundred people, written specifically with families in mind.

9 Create and use a Gingerbread Nativity to explore the story. Loads more details in The Gingerbread Nativity by Renita Boyle. Also available as a pdf.

10 Use Our Christmas Family GodVenture, a sticker activity book which explores the Christmas Bible story using over 400 stickers!

For more ideas and Activities to explore at Christmas visit my 50 Faith at home ideas for Christmas here.