Journey to Bethlehem Advent craft
Here is a very visual and beautiful way to journey through Advent to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph in anticipation of the birth of Christ.
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For this craft, you will need the Catholic Playground template that contains
1) Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem
2) Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus
3) the stable at Bethlehem
4) the star of Bethlehem
5) the three wise men on their camels traveling to the stable
– either the full color template…
or the black and white template of these images that you can color yourself. The templates are available together as a download for $3.99.
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We used a few supplies from home to attach the Advent craft to the wall…
– a length of twine, yarn or rope that will fit a wall you plan to hang it on (ours was 7 ft long)
– pink, purple, and yellow beads (or, you could mark these spots on your string with marker)
– three clothespins
First, cut out the color template or color and cut out the black and white template. For the black and white template, you can cut out the images directly on the shapes or on the oval shapes given around each shape.
Once the shapes are cut and colored, use a long string or yarn as your Advent “counter.” To keep track of the days of Advent, we spaced out purple plastic beads for the first two weeks,
then pink beads for the third week of Advent, then enough purple beads for the days of Advent in the fourth week (count the number of days before Christmas Day in the fourth week), along the twine reaching all the way to the stable at Bethlehem. After the fourth week of purple beads, we left a space for the stable and then additional space on the twine after the stable for the days until Epiphany
(This will vary from year to year. In most countries, the celebration of Epiphany is transferred to the Sunday that falls between January 2 and January 8).
We put a loop on each end of the twine to attach the string to the wall.
Then, we attached a small loop to the top of the stable so that we could attach it to the wall…
and put the Star of Bethlehem at the top.
You can use whatever method you like to attach the string to the wall. We like command hooks for this purpose. They are easy to attach, will not ruin the paint, and can be easily removed when you want to take them down.
Next, we glued clothespins to the back of the images of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, and the wise men.
Then, Mary and Joseph can be placed on the first space on the twine as they begin their journey to Bethlehem.
Each day of Advent- by moving the clothespin another space- Mary and Joseph can travel another “day” on the timeline.
On Christmas Day, place Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in front of the stable…
Then,
the wise men can begin their journey,
traveling along each day,
until they reach the stable on Epiphany!
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