I know it’s October and I know that saying Christmas before it’s even Halloween should be against the rules on the internet.
Two years ago, in the middle of the pandemic when I was pregnant and we were traveling all the way to our living room for the holidays, I had grand plans of things I wanted to do with A and decorations I wanted to add to our home. But by the time I got around to buying things to prep for Christmas and holiday activities, it was too late and nothing would have arrived in time. I was super bummed, and I promised myself I’d be all over it the following year. Below are three things that I bought last year in October so that I was ready to go once the holidays rolled around.
Advent + The Three Wisemen Activity
This is tradition is a more Jesus-focused activity around Christmas that has Elf On The Shelf vibes, but overall is less work. First you’ll need a nativity scene. I grabbed mine off of Etsy. I also was eyeing this one, this one, and this one. Just make sure whichever one you get has a star and comes with three wisemen – they don’t all come with the wisemen.
On the day that Advent begins, we take the three wise men and place them as far away in our home as they can be from the nativity scene. Each day, they move a little closer as they make their ‘trek’ to get to Jesus.
After the wisemen are found, we then go over to our advent calendar and pull out a Jesse Tree Ornament. On the back of the ornament are bible verses that are pulled directly from the Jesus Storybook Bible. We read the passage of the bible, and then get to hang the ornament on the tree.
This is a great and fun way to bring in Jesus to Christmas each day.
Quick note on the advent calendar: make sure you grab one that has big enough pockets for the ornaments! Last year, the ornaments did not fit in the little pockets of our Target brand calendar. This time around, I specifically bought a reusable calendar that noted in the reviews that it fits the Jesse Tree Ornaments. Don’t make my mistake!
Terrain Faux Cedar Garland
I love and hate garland. It bring so much christmasy-ness to a room, but real garland is terrible to work with. I discovered this garland from Terrain last year, and I’m excited to actually use it on a real fire place this year (as opposed to our entertainment center which is where it was last year). This garland looks so real, is really easy to move and place, and best of all it doesn’t make a mess!
Right now it’s still in stock, but it doesn’t ship until November 20. This was the case last year, and it showed up right in time for when we started pulling all of our holiday decor out. Run, don’t walk and snag this before it sells out!
