Christmas Study Plans

I have been planning our Christmas study plans for a few weeks now.  They have come together nicely and I’m very excited about all we hope to do. 

I came across a link for a book called ‘The Christ Book’.  You put it together in a 3 ring binder.  I knew as soon as I saw it I wanted to do it throughout the month of December leading up to Christmas day. 

In it are seventeen scriptures and short stories/info about Christ.  The book is about Christ’s life from birth to resurrection. 

There are pictures and songs to go with each day as well.  I burned a CD from LDS.org of all the songs so we could have the music ready to play as we sing them each day.  All of the printables for the song words, scripture/short story for each day are a free download from Sew Dang Cute.  I purchased the picture packet needed from LDS.org for $4.

I wanted to do a Twelve Days of Christmas with the kids this year.  I’ve never done this before and thought it would be something fun for all of us.  I found a really neat one at The Craft Patch.  You print a story for each day and have a go along candy as a treat. 

I put the candies in brown lunch sacks, printed the stories, rolled them up and attached them to the bags using ribbon.  I also attached a number for each day to all of the bags.  I found some cute numbers to print at Oh My Gluestick, laminated them, punched them out with a circle punch and then put a whole in the top with a one hole punch.  This is going to be fun! I knew I wanted to make various ornaments and crafts throughout the month while we read holiday books, but hadn’t quite finished this part of my planning until yesterday.  My friend, Jenny (thank you so much, Jenny!), emailed me an awesome link from A Day of Wonders for a Story Book Tree.  This was just what I needed to make my plans complete. 

I got an inexpensive 4 ft. table top tree to use for our Story Book Tree.  I am going to print, laminate and cut out a small book cover image of the books we read to attach to a homemade ornament that represents the book.  We can all make ornaments for our tree.  I hope to make this a tradition and as our tree fills up we can get a bigger one to replace it.  Our tree in the living room ‘died’ this year, so this was really a perfect fix and will be such a special tree to look at each year as we remember the stories and the homemade ornaments. Here are the books and ornaments I hope to read/make for our tree this year:

• The Gingerbread Man – cardboard gingerbread men
• The Little Fir Tree – pinecone ‘Christmas trees’, footprint tree for Jesse
• The Cobweb Christmas – brooms
• Christmas Magic/Snowmen at Night – craft stick snowman for Joe and a fun puff paint snowman craft for Jack; bottlecap snowman for Hanna, footprint snowmen for Jesse
• The Legend of the Poinsettia – mason jar lids felt poinsettias
• Dream Snow – clear glass ball ornaments filled with fake snow and covered with snowflake stickers
• Mouse’s First Christmas – beaded, pipe cleaner candy canes
• Olive the Other Reindeer – puzzle piece reindeer
• Room for a Little One/Mortimer’s Christmas Manger – craft stick angels (Hanna), manger craft for Jack, handprint angel for Jesse
• The Finest Christmas Tree – craft stick Christmas tree
• Bear’s Christmas Star – star tree topper (Joe)

I love and treasure this time of year.  There is just something that feels so cozy and so special about it.  I am looking forward to all that we have planned as we celebrate this wonderful time of year together as a family.