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Monday, January 13

Truth in the Tinsel Advent Ornaments

After I made our muslin Advent calendar I still needed to fill it up! I wanted something that would be easy to use and ready to go year after year. And bonus points for things that won't break when they are inevitably dropped by little boys. :) So... felt ornaments for the win!

We used the Truth in the Tinsel advent materials this year (and really enjoyed it!) so I made ornaments that would go along with the readings. The materials have a scripture for each day in December and a short discussion to go along with it. We liked that most of the scriptures were repeated a few days in a row (with a different focus) since repetition = memorization! The other thing we liked about this was that the whole 24 days focused on the Christmas story which seemed good for the little guys. There are other Advent ideas like the Jesse tree that start in Genesis and go through the whole Bible, and while something like that would be a great refresher for bigger kids, we loved that this really broke down the greatest story for a little boy who is just starting to understand Christmas. The Truth in the Tinsel book also included an ornament craft project to match each day's topic. That will be fun when the boys are a little older, but I wasn't up for it this year. So mama-made ornaments it was! Here are the ornaments I made with felt and hot glue (but more power to you if you have the patience to sew them).

the light, the kingdom, and Zechariah (we put the "x" on his mouth to show he couldn't talk)

the angel, Mary, and Mary with Elizabeth (both pregnant or holding beach balls)

music, sun, Joseph

The dream, Jesus' name, the census (Big Brother pulled this one out and said "it's the babies!" My bad.)

Bethlehem, the stable, the manger

swaddling clothes, sheep, host of angels

shepherds, the temple, the star

wisemen, the gifts, the cross

I made the main parts with at least two layers of felt and then added on the accents. I wanted to make sure they were thick enough that they wouldn't tear or get stretched out too easily. I also wanted to put faces on the people. Something cute like this. (These babies could definitely benefit from some hair, too.)


But for some reason my puffy fabric paint kept soaking in a spreading out and I ended up with a horror show like poor old Joseph here. So I ended up leaving most of the faceless. Which may or may not be less scary.


That's all I had in it this year, but I might add some more things next year. Maybe verse cards for the kids or an activity idea for the day. I also really like the idea to include an idea of something nice to do for someone else - write a letter to grandma, take cookies to the neighbors, take a hot drink to a bell ringer, make dinner for a friend, etc.

But for now I'll just leave you with these boys and their trains:


Good news guys, I don't have many more Christmassy things left to post. So we can catch up with the rest of the world soon! Thanks for hanging around, I'm really glad you're here! :)

2 comments:

  1. I love these. We have the printable/coloring version of the ornaments, and I was going to make a felt version of those. Yours are a great inspiration!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Definitely go for it. We pulled them out this year and everything was ready to go - no work or planning needed! It's great! :)

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