Children's Advent Tree Project

Children's Advent Tree Project

Related Resources:
CatholicMom.com Advent Index
Christian Christmas Coloring Pictures

Advent Tree CHILDREN’S ADVENT TREE PROJECT

by Cheryl L. Butler, Christ the King Parish, Kingston, Rhode Island

Helping children to anticipate the birth of Jesus is truly a blessing.

They are already filled with such wonder and excitement so helping them to count down the days with some type of Advent Calendar can help to reinforce the true meaning of the season, the birth of our Savior.

Here’s a fun, easy Advent Calendar project you can do with your children or CCD students.

Supplies Needed

A 12-inch Artificial Christmas Tree (Many Dollar Stores carry these, or discount stores such as Wal-Mart sell them for $1 – 2 per tree (Or even a small paper cup with a few real tree branches would do nicely----just weight the branches down with a few stones so it won’t topple over)
Three Feet of your color choice of Christmas Ribbon
25 mini paper cupcake liners (decorative or plain)
Photograph of Your Child
Star cut out of construction Paper for the Top of The Tree……..Glue the child’s photo to center of star. Laminate if you’d like.
Markers or Crayons
Hole Puncher

Instructions:

Take the 25 mini cupcake liners and punch a hole in the top of each one.
With marker or crayon, have the children place the numbers 1 – 25 on the inside of each of the cupcake liners. Next, thread the ribbon through all 25 liners, making sure that they are in numeric order from 1 thru 25. Now wrap the garland of numbered cupcake liners around the tree, just as you would a real garland for a large Christmas tree. You can fasten the beginning and end of the ribbon with tape or tie directly onto one of the braches. Place the Star at the top of the tree that has the child’s picture on it.

On the First Day of Advent, the child will remove the cupcake liner that says 25, each day thereafter he/she should remove 24, 23 and so on. This will show the child how many days there are left until Christmas. If the child would like, he/she could add his/her own decoration to replace the cupcake liner that is removed each day. The child could even design his own set of paper ornaments out of festive construction paper to symbolize the meaning of the season.

The entire family can participate in this fun and creative Advent tree project or a child can be in charge of his own tree! It’s simple, inexpensive and creativity will surely soar as excitement builds with each passing day!