anticipating christmas

i know, christmas is past, but i wanted to post this now while all our memories are fresh! yours and mine, because i hope your post a response!
we've spent most of the month of december sick and in attempts to keep things simple, i just haven't been on the computer very much.
heading into christmas this year i had two things in mind; simplify and create more meaning to the holiday. i wondered if these two things could co-exist, but they were both very necessary for us.

the kids are still really young, but i realized that this year there was so much more talk about presents. i'll be the first to say that i love the gift-giving of christmas, but i don't want that to be the emphasis for us. i was hoping for something we could do, enter into, be a part of, engage with, to help us/them understand christmas at a deeper level.

(my creative and precious friend, lb, who sells her goodies over at fashionablylate

led an art session a couple years ago where i got to make this lovely advent calender. )

last year a friend showed us her advent activities for her toddlers and i decided we would practice advent this year. naturally, i waited until after thanksgiving and was up late november 30th working on the project, so next year we'll make some changes,

but,

we did it!

i made a list of 24 activities that would help us anticipate christmas. activities that would focus our thoughts on the broader meaning of christmas, to remind us that the anticipation can be just as exciting. i divided the activities into three groups; simple, short projects were white, (like coloring a christmas picture and having a picnic under the christmas tree), slightly more time-consuming activities were green (making an ornament for someone, a garland, or decorating cookies for neighbors), and big ticket items or ones we wanted to do as a family were red (putting up the christmas tree, going sledding as a family)

since i waited until the last minute, i simply wrote the item on a piece of paper and rolled them up. we picked one out of the bowl each day. next year i'd like to make a numbering system so that i can have a little more control over which particular item is chosen each day.

one of the favorite activities was making this garland out of recycled christmas cards.

we also made an advent wreath. four candles represent the four sunday's prior to christmas, the center candle represents the Christ candle, christmas day. there are many words given to the four candles, and it seems there is no wrong answer, so we called the first candle LOVE because first there was love. we love because he first loved us. God sent his son because he loved us.

the second red candle we called HOPE. love gave us something to have hope in, something to hope for, filled us with hope!
the third candle we named JOY. having hope and experiencing love brings joy. Jesus gives us a reason to rejoice.
the fourth candle we called PEACE.
the final candle, the large white one, was the JESUS candle. the fulfillment of our waiting.
we lit the specific candle during dinner each night for the entire week following its introduction. some nights it felt more like we were lighting the candle and that was it. other nights we actually had conversations about the word, or about advent, or waiting, or anything! it was fantastic!

the most exciting thing was to realize that even though we were adding something to our day, another activity, it the season actually felt more peaceful.

what have you done to make christmas more meaningful? naturally, i am thinking about preschool aged appropriate, but really want to hear about family traditions for all ages of children!