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Advent Blessing Jar

All Archives, Christmas, Holidays, Kid Ideas, Kids Activities, Parenting    ·    November 13, 2014

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A different kind of advent to celebrate the season - make this Advent Blessings Jar with your family for an extra meaningful season! 

A different kind of advent to celebrate the season – make this Advent Blessings Jar with your family for an extra meaningful season!
Advent Blessing Jar - an alternative to the traditional advent calendar. Awesome idea for kids and families!

Advent

Like most kids, mine start making next year’s list for Santa on the 26th of December.  They spend hours looking through toy catalogs, circling items, and discussing all of the things they “need.”   And, like most parents, what I really want my children to focus on during the holidays is something entirely different.   I’m realistic that “getting stuff” will always be a big part of Christmas, but I try my best to incorporate the concept of giving.

What is advent?

There is a long history of advent.  It is commonly known as the time of waiting of Jesus Christ at Christmas, as well as the second coming.  The word advent comes from the Latin word for “coming.”
A lot of faiths use an advent calendar to mark this time – but the date varies each year.  While most people use an advent calendar from December 1 – 25th, the date of the first Sunday of Advent falls between November 27th and December 3rd.

Advent Calendar

This year I’m trying a new kind of advent “calendar”–an Advent Blessings Jar.   It’s basically just popsicle sticks in a Mason Jar, but I’m hoping that by Christmas it will be much more.


Advent Blessing Jar - an alternative to the traditional advent calendar.
Here’s how it works:

Step One: Choose a charity that is deserving of a donation.  Pick something that is special to your family.  Something that your kids can get excited about.  Love dogs?  Choose to donate to a local animal shelter?  Have a friend or loved one on the autism spectrum?  Donate to Autism Speaks.  If there’s a local food bank that you drive past frequently, donate to that.  The more meaningful, the better.  You can even choose to do this activity in November and then use your donations to buy toys for Toys for Tots!

Step Two: Write one different blessing  your family should be grateful for that may often get overlooked on twenty-four popsicle sticks.  Make it countable.  For example, ceiling fans.  Houston in August without ceiling fans would be miserable.  P.S. We have six.


Advent Blessing Jar - an alternative to the traditional advent calendar. Fabulous idea for kids and families!

  • Each day pull a popsicle stick, read the blessing, and count how many of that blessing you have in your home.   One of my sticks reads “ways to cook food”.    We have a grill,  microwave, electric griddle, oven, stove, toaster, and fire pit in the backyard.  SEVEN!
  • Now put that many pennies (or nickels, dimes, etc) into your jar.  Every day it should be a different blessing and a different number.  Some days it will be less (how many cars do you have?) some days it will be more (how many books on the shelf in your bedroom?).  That money (and your family’s gratitude for blessings) will add up quickly.
  • When the sticks are gone (should be Christmas Eve), count up your money as a family to see how much you get to donate to your chosen charity.  After going through all of the items in your home and seeing how blessed they are, your children may also decide to donate stuffed animals, blankets, shoes, or other things to a local shelter or family in need.

To make this advent you need:

  • popsicle sticks
  • Sharpie
  • mason jar
  • washi tape/decorations


Advent Blessing Jar supplies
 

You can definitely just grab some popsicle sticks and get going with a Sharpie, but I added one extra step to make my advent jar just a little more Christmas-like.  You can use ribbon, scrapbooking paper, etc to decorate your popsicle sticks and jar, but I went the easy route–washi tape.

So fabulous.

I picked up some Christmas colored washi tape at my local craft store.  They didn’t have many choices at the time, so I just got two patterns.   I added tape to each stick and around the jar.


Advent Blessing Jar - an alternative to the traditional advent calendar!
Then I walked through the house writing down overlooked blessings.  Things that we are extremely fortunate to have.  Like fifty pairs of shoes spilling out of the basket by the back door.  Some kids would love to have just ONE pair of shoes and we have so many that they are annoying at times.  Other items on written my sticks: places to get clean water (hose spigots, fridge, all the sinks, shower, bath–we are so lucky.  Seriously), electronic toys, cans of food, chairs, beds, bikes, light fixtures, rooms in the house, appliances in the kitchen (including things like waffle maker), dolls, bathrooms, stuffed animals (this number is ridiculous), blankets, doors in house, books, family members, windows, and clocks.


Advent Blessing Jar - an alternative to the traditional advent calendar. Amazing idea for kids and families!
Add your sticks to the Mason jar and you’re done.  Super simple, but effective way to teach kids about gratitude and giving.

**You may also want to consider the book Where Children Sleep as a resource when teaching your children about gratitude for the lives they lead.  It’s a powerful compilation of children’s rooms throughout the world.  Some are heartbreaking, many will give your kids a new perspective.

A different kind of advent to celebrate the season - make this Advent Blessings Jar with your family for an extra meaningful season! 

Other Meaningful Christmas Ideas

If you like this Advent idea, you’re going to love these other meaningful Christmas ideas. Please click each link below to find the information:

  • Christmas Countdown Kindness Calendar
  • Nativity Christmas Countdown
  • 12 Days of Christmas, Nativity Style
  • Random Acts of Kindness for the Holidays
  • Want, Need, Wear, Read Gift Idea
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Comments

  1. Avatar for MiqueAbby Griebel says

    December 7, 2014 at 4:46 am

    I’m so glad I ran across this idea on a friend’s fb post! We are going to do this this year. We’ll be getting a late start, but I don’t want to wait until next year. This is one of the best ideas I have seen to help kids make a direct tie between what they have and others do not. I think making a charitable contribution after the holidays, particularly to something like a food bank is a wonderful thing. So many organizations like that have a huge surge in donations at the holidays only to have them fall off when they are over. Thank you for a beautiful idea!

  2. Avatar for MiqueAngie says

    November 30, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    Love it! Thanks for the idea.

  3. Avatar for MiqueMandy says

    November 25, 2014 at 11:30 am

    What a lovely idea. My kids definitely need to start learning a bit of gratitude and I think this is a perfect way to start!

  4. Avatar for MiqueValerie says

    November 13, 2014 at 10:29 am

    I LOVE this idea and will definitely be doing this with my kids. I think they will love going around the house and counting up all of our blessings. I just got something in the mail today from our local food bank soliciting donations and was thinking of contributing to that worthy cause. This seems like a fantastic way to do that and get the whole family involved at the same time. Thank you for sharing this great idea!

  5. Avatar for Mique[email protected] says

    November 13, 2014 at 10:08 am

    I LOVE this idea! Doing it with my kiddos this year! Pinned!

  6. Avatar for MiqueDanielle says

    November 13, 2014 at 6:17 am

    Please post on Pinterest, this is lovely! :)

  7. Avatar for MiqueJo @ Let's Face the Music says

    November 13, 2014 at 3:47 am

    I have tears in my eyes. Beautiful. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music

  8. Avatar for MiqueSuzanne says

    November 13, 2014 at 3:13 am

    this is a really wonderful idea and very versatile. I can see it being used in November or really any time of the month when a shift to gratitude is the goal. Thank you!

Pingbacks

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    […] came across this post from Thirty Handmade Days featuring an Advent Blessing Jar and thought it was a wonderful idea. […]

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Mique

(Like Mickey!) I started 30days several years ago as my idea file. After 9 years and thousands of ideas, I realize I’ll never be able to check them all off my list.

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