25 Days of the Christmas Story: An Advent Family Experience

Very good for a first grader and good enough with a teenager. Hard to find devotionals for the whole family, and maybe it was a little kiddish for my teen, but I would recommend to families with multiple age kids. Especially elementary age. It definitely was well rounded way to think about Christmas and how God put everything in play.

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 is HANDS DOWN my favorite advent devotional we've ever done. The kids are still asking about it and talking about it a year later. It is not just information and conversation, but an experience. The experience my kids had with God through this book was invaluable. I'd highly recommend it if you hadn't tried it yet. My kids were 4,6 and 8 when we did it.

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.

Just received our advent book and its a lovely, vividly co!orful book with beautiful stories and lots of family ideas of activities. You can tell its written from the heart! Its allabout Jesus's story and characteristics our the characters ex: Gabriel was courageous and why he was and how we can apply that character trait to our lives. Yet also sharing the truth that truly, Daniel was scared inside when he saw Gabriel but how, Gabriel.was used to ease the mind and heart of others. So for us not to fear, because with God, we can be courageous. ". That message in any time of life can be great for a child or parent! My husband and I follow Josh and Kristi on their podcast and Facebook and their helpful suggestions have been awesome for our family life! We enjoyed and still do read What am I feeling and their contents, in my opinion, are not just for kids to learn, but as parents we always learn about ourselves as well. This is going to be a great book to enjoy a slower pace and meaning of our Christmas time where I believe we will even incorporate I to our family Shabbat family times together. I look forward to enjoying this with our 7 & 9 year olds but also with grandparents and friends. Thank you Josh & Kristi for sharing your heart! It also arrived MUCH MUCH quicker than it says. It only took a few days. I will update as we begin reading and practicing :) Enjoy this book, its lovely!

Purchased this Christian activity advent calendar for our family and we absolutely love it! Each day is a short story about a different character in the Bible, the character’s trait, a life lesson, questions to discuss with your family and a short prayer. I’ve been recording each of my family’s responses and will be keeping it for memories. This will definitely be one of our Christmas family traditions! Very satisfied with how much my family enjoys doing this together! Highly recommend!

My 4 year old son absolutely loved reading this for the month of December. It was short enough to keep his attention span, and kept him curious enough to ask a lot of questions. We did not do the family exercises this year as my son’s attention is not quite there, but we plan to do them next year.

Well written, nice quality. Thought provoking questions, life lessons & family activity for each day. Good way to engage any age and have fun learning about our Savior and the circumstances leading up to His birth.

We've really been enjoying this read around Christmas time. The stories are child friendly that also give you the time to have great discussions around God and Christmas. My kids are 10 and 6 and have both really enjoyed reading this every night.

My 7 yr old has not spent a lot of time in church for various reasons, and is influenced by commercial Santa who gets kids anything they want. This book is interesting, age appropriate, and is a great way to prepare ourselves for Christmas. She is even interested in learning more about the 1 page stories each day, and it sparks great convos.

I was really hoping for an advent story that is suitable for my for an eight year old, but it was a little bit too old for my four year old.

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.