Start of Advent

  

Since we will be away next week we have started Nativity building early. Normally we would start the 1st December. Our Nativity replaced our Christmas tree last year which we gave away to another family.

We start with little and build the Nativity over the month of December, adding something new each day. This year we will start with Joseph and slowly add other people and animals as we move closer to Christmas. Jesus does not appear in the manger until Christmas morning.

A new addition this year is our advent spiral. Our angel will move forward one spot each day leaving behind a trail of candles. I think it is going to be magical if I can convince the kids to leave the candles alone. I love our new table we will use this year too. The book trays underneath are a perfect place to keep our growing collection of Christmas books (of which none are about the jolly red Santa Clause flying in sleighs).

This year we have built our stable from cardboard following these instructions here it was actually rather easy and I think it turned out well. This is so not a craft for 6, 4 and 2 year olds though. My tip is build ahead without them, then let them paint and decorate.