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The Advent Experience Box 2024

Unbox meaningful family memories this Christmas with a hands-on experience that celebrates faith and builds connection

Activity Overview

The activity in the 2024 Advent Experience box builds a paper Advent wreath over the five sessions. We will construct the wreath each session, but here’s an overview of the entire activity as well as some step-by-step photos. (Even if you’re not crafty, you’ve got this!) 

The wreath follows the Advent tradition as a table-top centerpiece (not a hanging wreath). Here’s a photo of the completed wreath. (It’s okay if yours doesn’t look like this.) 

Adjust the activity to fit your family’s preferences: 

#1 No-Mess Option 

No matter how crafty you get, you’ll always follow these steps! Note: following just column #1 will not use the paint or paintbrushes and will take less time to complete. 

#2 Painting Option

The paints included in the kit are custom to match the wreath to a minimal color palette, but if you have more paint at home and want to use, that’s great! We also recommend two other supplies from home:  Drop cloth to protect your space from paint (like an old towel or newspaper)  Paint palette to mix paint on (like a paper plate or something you plan to recycle later) 

#3 Arts & Craft Option

Tap into your inner artist—gather spare art supplies from your own backyard, pull out the glitter from your craft supplies at home, and create your own unique collage! 

Advent Wreath Assembly (Session 2)

  1. Fold a green square diagonally to make it a triangle. 
  2. With a pencil, lightly trace a half-circle shape of a leaf and stem along the fold. 
  3. Cut along the pencil line. 
  4. Place a glue dot on one side of the leaf stem. 
  5. Fold the stem around the ring and press so that the glue dot adheres to the back of the leaf. 
  6. Repeat until the wreath is full! 

Candle Assembly (Every Session)

  1. With a pencil, draw five flame shapes on the back of the gold paper. 
  2. Cut out the circle (yellow flame) and rectangle (candle base). Set aside. 
  3. Cut out one of the flame shapes from the gold paper. 
  4. Place a glue dot on the back of a gold flame and adhere to the center of the yellow circle. Set aside. 
  5. Place glue dots next to the dashed line on the small part of the rectangle. For shorter candles, use 2-3 glue dots, for taller use 3-4. 
  6. Roll the rectangle into a cylinder/ tube shape, so that the dotted line is hidden. Press so that the glue dot adheres along the seam. 
  7. Cut small notches along the short lines at the top of the candle base. 8. Place the candle in the center of the wreath and “light” during the prayers and blessing. 

ADDITIONAL TIPS: 

 

Wreath Assembling: Start by adding leaves to the major sections of the leaf (top, sides, and bottom). After adding leaves to those spaces, divide the remainder of the leaves throughout the wreath and then attach with the glue dot to ensure no empty spaces on your wreath.

 

Painting Berries: If you have a messy painter at home with you, it may be wise to attach your berries to the provided twist ties before painting the berries. This will help make sure that extra paint won’t dry over the holes in the wooden beads for an easier attachment to the wreath.

 

Attaching Berries: To attach to the twist tie, pinch the twist tie to fit into the hole of the wooden bead. Once the twist tie is in the bead. Flip your wreath to the back and twist the tie as closely to the wreath ring as possible. If your bead is still wobbly after, add a bit of an extra glue dot from the box to secure the position of your wooden bead.

 

Attaching Multiple Berries at Once: To attach multiple berries in one spot, we recommend adding one berry at a time using one twist tie per berry. Add them individually and once next to each other, twist the beads around each other to secure them to one another.



Thanks for purchasing the Advent Experience Box! We love helping you and your family have fun and connect.