Last year Elissa Bjeletich sent me her delightful Welcoming the Christ Child, a book of 40 family advent readings and matching ornaments. I loved it but felt that my youngest two were not going to appreciate it, so I saved it for this year. (You can read my review here.)
One dilemma I had was how and where to hang the ornaments. I wasn’t going to put up an actual tree, and the thought of hanging them on strings or ribbons didn’t seem right. After some pondering I realized I could just make a two-dimensional tree.
I purchased a piece of foam core board and a bag of small clothes pins. I dyed the clothes pins green by mixing some green food coloring and a spoonful or two of water in a sandwich bag and soaking them for a few hours. (They dried on a pan in the oven.)
We drew a rough outline of a tree on the foam core and let the little ones color it in with green crayons. I admit I did do a bit of filling in and tidying when they were done. Then I hot-glued 40 pins onto the tree (having laid them out first so I didn’t run out of room towards the end). I hot-glued a string on the back and put a command hook on the wall. That’s it.
Since we started a few days late as I was gone to the retreat, we’ve been doing two readings and hanging two ornaments a night until we catch up. I light the advent candle(s) first, we read the story, and then we hang the ornament. I let them put on a red star sticker or two, reminding them of some good behavior during the day (sharing, being good in church, etc.), and then they blow out the candle(s).
The girls like this so much they start reminding me in the middle of the afternoon! I’m very glad to have finally launched into some advent traditions.
From the womb before the morning star have I begotten Thee. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. [Psalm 109:3-4]*
Praying With My Feet 
We’re enjoying the book too and have doubled up on reading since purchasing it at the conference! Right now we’re hanging it on my fall foliage decor around the dining room window. Tomorrow we’ll switch over to Christmas greens!
We are enjoying the readings and guided questions!
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I have an Orthodox Jesse tree thing from an etsy seller–my kids really look forward to it every year. They already started asking about it at the beginning of November! (We don’t start the fast until Wed. on the Old Calendar). I like yours too–it is nice and easy, which is what these things should be.
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Thank you! I’m really trying to stick to my resolution to not let perfect be the enemy of good. There are so many things I haven’t done because I couldn’t make them perfect. It comes from pride and comparing myself to others.
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I absolutely love this idea!
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I love the drawn tree, brilliant.
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Divine inspiration!
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Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. I like that and have never heard that anywhere else. Pride sure is sneaky.
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Oh, I totally did not originate that!! I’ve heard it several times and it sticks with me because that’s *exactly* what I tend to do.
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I have barely begun to understand what pride is. Have you read the book Holiness: Is It Attainable Today? By Monk Moses of Mt Athos? There’s a chapter to the Theotokos that contains the most beautiful description of her that I’ve ever read. Her mentions how she is carefree; I wonder if that is how we’d be without pride.
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No, I haven’t read that. Thanks for sharing it.
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