25 Days of the Christmas Story: An Advent Family Experience

Why weren’t books like this around when I was little? If you are a parent looking to add a Christ centered element to family time leading up to Christmas, this is it! Thumbing through the pages may be a little overwhelming with activities, but that’s a good thing as I plan to remix some of the ideas this year and save some for next year! This book is the gift that keeps on giving and I can imagine using this with our kids throughout their childhood.

The media could not be loaded.  TL;DR: This is definitely not a book, but as the cover says, a family experience. While it might be a bit much for younger kids, I think 5 and up would really grasp it well and the family activities are a great way to make the holiday season interactive and memorable. Love the cover to cover color and consistency in cadence and illustrations as well as the lengthy section in the back for Christmas memories to be cherished and shared for years to come.I saw this book last year when it first came out and it was so popular I actually couldn't find a copy to start it on time for the advent season. I'm glad we didn't get it last year as the concepts, wording, and activities would've been way too much for our nearly 2 year old. Now that we have a nearly 3 year old and a 1 year old, I still find the text and activities to be a bit mature for his age. I think kids 5 and up would do much better with this book. There are a lot of "big" words in the text and sometimes the authors can get too caught up in "Christianese" terms and language that they forget about the audience. For this year, we will likely just be reading through the small story lines and skipping most of the activities and questions for now.Here's how the book is set up:Each day (1-25) represents a person, place, or thing that had a part in the Christmas season. There is an illustration for each "character" as well as their theme trait. Then, a small story is on the opposite page as well as the person's verse themes. The next page has suggestions for family discussions and activities to go along with the character's story for that day.While the stories are short and well-written, they're still chock full of bigger words and concepts and sometimes the "Christian language" is overarching on being able to have an understandable Christmas story. A lot of the activities, though well thought out, are quite involved or require a lot of prep time or just advance notice. I'd suggest if you're planning on doing the activities that you get yourself comfortable at home and get ready to spend quite some time on the different activities as some seem lengthy. I'd also suggest you read the whole book or at least a week at a time in the book so you have an idea of what activities you do and do not want to do as well as prepping your mind, heart, and crafting supplies.My suggestion would be to let the book grow with your family. This year we will probably do very few of the activities and then words and concepts that may go over my 3 year old's head need to be explained in a way he can understand.Overall, I love the book. I love all of the people/places/things that are woven together to bring us to the birth of Jesus. I definitely think this is a good book you can adapt for your older kids to grow in to, but I also love that we can do some of the activities if I give myself eonough time to plan ahead.I love that there is a 20 page section in the end to jot down various Christmas memories thorughout the season, year to year, whether it be related to the book or not. This certainly is a book that's giftable and also one that could be used for years to come an even passed down to the next generation.

I am reading this with my 2.5 year old and I also have a 7 month old. So we’re not doing any of the family activities or discussions this year. So I can’t speak for those, but for the readings and the illustrations, I give 5 stars.I actually love that I can do just the readings right now and have activities and discussions that seem to fit a variety of ages for future years. So it’s like this book with grow with our family.Firstly, thank you guys for giving the people slightly darker skin tones!Next, in the readings, I really appreciate that instead of saying like ‘so-in-so felt such-in-such way and was thinking these thoughts’ it is presented more like “can you imagine how ___ must have felt?” If the Bible meantions how someone felt, then fine, but I hate when Bible studies, etc. get all flowery and add stuff and present it as fact.Speaking of facts, I also like that they talk about how we don’t know when the magi visited, but that it was probably between 16-24 months after Jesus’ birth. There are some other things like that which I really appreciate.There was one reading I didn’t really like, and I think maybe it was the Herod one. I’ll have to come back and edit this if I look and see it was another one. Anyway, for Herod, they did focus a lot on him being jealous of Jesus. I can’t remember if the Bible said “jealous” but the way it’s written, I don’t know. But anyway, alllll the other ones have been great.Also, the reading about Jesus’ birth is on like day 13 I think. I believe I did the math and if you wanted Jesus’ birth to occur on Christmas Day, then the rest of the days allow you to have the 12 days of Christmas to be after Christmas (which is how it used to be I believe) and I think that makes it end on Three Kings Day/Day of Epiphany.Anyway, I’m so glad we have this book and I’m trying to contact the authors to ask them to do a book leading up to Easter too. And honestly, I’d love to have a quick daily devotional that would be flexible enough to do with little littles and be able to grow as they do.

This was wonderful for a bedtime ritual for our family that discussed people, places, and objects important to the Christmas story. Though I don't think we did *any* of the family activities, they were interesting and my child always asked, "What's the family activity?" even though we only read them rather than doing them. I think families should preview them, though, as a few I thought, "Hm . . . I don't want to do that," e.g. get my kids very excited about an early Christmas gift and then have it be straw--though I understand the point.I was sad when Christmas came and there were no more devotions--I would have loved for it to go into the twelve days of Christmas and Epiphany as well. That said, this book covers people and objects in the story all the way into Epiphany. Jesus is halfway through the month, and near Christmas we have one day for each gift from the Magi, followed by Egypt, and, on Christmas day, Nazareth.

I purchased the kindle version of this to read with my kids and was disappointed when many of the pages had words missing!! I have tried all sorts of troubleshooting and nothing seems to bring up the words. I was looking forward to doing this devotional with my kids as the sample looked great. I’d recommend buying a paper version and not the kindle as it is not reliable.