Use this Christmas Countdown Book to help you remember Christ in Christmas with a picture, scripture, song, video, and ornament each day.
Do you have Christmas traditions from your childhood, or traditions that you have started with your own family that you hope will stay with them forever? I want to share with you my absolute favorite tradition that I have spent YEARS working on to perfect it: The Christmas Countdown Book!
I am so excited to share with you one of our family’s favorite Christmas traditions! Over the next month, I will be giving you a day-by-day Christmas countdown that we have used for every year around Christmas time. The Christmas countdown book is like a living advent calendar with many working pieces!
Christmas Countdown Book
Originally, I had seen a book similar to this on Pinterest. It was so long ago, the pin link doesn’t work anymore, and the website is non existent. I loved what I saw, and wanted to make a book that would suit the needs of our family even better.
I loved how the book focused on a different part of the Savior’s life each day during December. With all the Santa Christmas movies and toy ads in the mail, I wanted a tradition that would help us remember Christ and the true meaning behind Christmas every day.
This Christmas Countdown book takes you from December 1-25. Each day has a picture, scripture, song, and video. Last year I also included an ornament to go along with the daily topic. Each day, I will link you to the exact items that I used in my book so that you can make a book for your own family! I hope this will be a tradition that you and your family will treasure for years to come!
Picture
All of the pictures that I chose to include in our Christmas Countdown Book come from the Media Library at churchofjesuschrist.org. There are multiple Image Collections that you can browse through to find the perfect pictures for your own book. I will link to the exact pictures I used each day. Most of our were found under “Jesus Christ” or “Gospel Art” in the Image Collections.
Scripture
Each day focuses on a different part of the Savior’s life. These events include his birth, teaching in the temple, his baptism, the miracles he performed, his death and resurrection, and the promise of his return again someday. These scriptures can all be found on churchofjesuschrist.org under “Scriptures and Study”.
Song
A Hymn or song from the Children’s Songbook is included each day. These songs help further teach the principles presented through the art and scripture. I have included the words to the songs in our book. Through the websites, you can print the sheet music too. Sometimes we will sing along with the provided recording, sing while someone plays the song on the piano, or sing it alone. The song is the part my kids look forward to the most!
Video
Each day includes a video. These videos are mostly from the Bible Video collection. Some are also past videos from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You can find other videos under Inspirational Messages or the Videos for Youth.
Ornament
I wanted to have a little gift or tangible reminder for the kids of the topic that we discussed each day. As a child, my Grandma would make me a new ornament each year. I knew that I was not up for making ornaments for each year, but loved being able to send my kids off to their own homes one day with ornaments that reminded them of our Christmas traditions. I will show you the simple ornaments we have, and link to similar ones to purchase if that is easier for you.
How to Make and Use the Christmas Countdown Book
I like to keep things as simple as possible. I printed out the material for each day and put it in a binder. We pull out the binder each year when we set up the Christmas decorations. Every night in December we will do our little devotional as a way to wind down from the busy day. It serves not only as a time for reflection, but a great bedtime story!
We have absolutely loved this tradition. My kids look forward to it every year. I really am super excited to share this with you since it has played a large role in helping our family keep Christ in Christmas.
Get the entire book to print here!
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15 Day 16 Day 17 Day 18 Day 19 Day 20 Day 21 Day 22 Day 23 Day 24 Day 25
Is there a place to download or purchase this book so I don’t have to copy and paste the information from each page?
I am working on getting that all put together!