Our Advent storytime with a toddler

Christmas time can be a very busy time for everyone in the household with the baking, buying gifts, decorating the house and parties to attend. It’s been extra busy for us as we are moving right after Christmas! But advent is also a great time to intentionally introduce your little one to the Christmas story.

There are a lot of advent activities that explain the Christmas story so well. I will list a few of them below. But based on my opinion, they are more suitable for toddlers 2 yrs and up. I will also explain why.

• The wonder of the Greatest Gift, by Ann Voskamp. This beautiful book opens up into a tree and each day, the little gets to put an ornament on the tree. Each day you also read an advent devotional to your little before he hangs the ornament.
  You might see why this might not be the best for my 18-month-old. He is all about pulling apart stuff than patiently wait to put one ornament at a time. So maybe next year 😉
  
• The way to the manger. This is a 25-day devotional you get to do together as a family. Each day you get to read together a devotional that slowly tells the birth of Christ.
  This again requires my toddler to sit and listen for more than 5 minutes without moving. Not happening right now…
  
  A very similar(yet affordable) idea can be found here, done beautifully by Story of this life Advent scripture readings.
  
• The giving manger. Though this is not necessarily a devotional, I love this concept of doing activities together around the house each day and placing a straw/hay on the manger.
  I am planning to do this with our family when J is 3+.
  

My little is 18 months old, which means, I do not expect him to understand the whole story and grasp the concept of Christmas. But we believe it is never too early to tell them the Christmas story. And the best way toddlers learn at this age is through activities.

We got this Melissa and Doug nativity set last year for his first Christmas, and we could not recommend it more! It is perfect for toddlers, to play with, to meddle with and explore.

We also had a hand-me-down board book called Christmas baby. Each page talks about different episodes of the story – The manger, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and the star. And the best part is the nativity set went perfectly along with the book. It’s a really old book but I finally found it here on Amazon.

We tried a combination of 2 activities and settled with the second one as it was best suited for my toddler. I hope it’s helpful for your family.

1.Rainbow rice activity with the Nativity set

I place the puzzle pieces in the rainbow rice set-up. He explores the pieces as I name each piece and what they mean. We did this activity for the first 3 or 4 days of December. He played with the rice, listened as much as he could. I also opened the book and showed him where these pieces go into the story.

2. Puzzle play with the Nativity set and Christmas baby book.

I realized how much the Nativity pieces go along with the book. So I thought we could make the book as the puzzle, and the Nativity sets and the puzzle pieces. We have been doing this once a day for a week now. J is getting interested in puzzles now and it was the right time for this activity. Each day his interest has been piquing, and it is wonderful to watch.

Another simple way is just to read the Christmas story every night to the child. It does not matter if you have the time to do a whole activity or not. Keep it simple, make it suitable for YOUR toddler. That’s the best way always. Let me know in the comments what works(ed) best for you.