I know, I know I just posted about Thanksgiving sneaking up on me and here I am writing about Christmas! Yes, I am currently working on Christmas posts. I wanted to share this one early just in case you are planning some of your December activities already.
I have wanted to go over the Names of Jesus with my kids as a study for awhile. This year I thought it would be appropriate to do during the Christmas season. I found an online Names of Jesus study at Easy Fun School and based this Advent chain off of the scope and sequence found there. The chains only contain the name and the Bible reference. Check out Easy Fun School’s site for in-depth activity ideas for each name.
Since purple is usually a color associated with royalty, I decided to make our paper chain purple and silver. I printed out the template on shimmer cardstock by Core’dinations. I was worried that the ink would rub off right away, but it didn’t. I did need to let it dry for a few minutes before cutting. If the ink gives you problems, you can set the ink with Kryon Preserve It! by lightly spraying the paper before cutting.
I made the hanger for the chain out of a white, sparkly pipe cleaner, ribbon, and snowflake garland. We will hang this up on December 1st and remove a chain each day until Christmas.
Click to download the Names of Jesus Advent Chain.
You may also want to check out the additional Christmas printables I have available. More coming soon.
I plan on flip-flopping Advent chains each year. In the past we have used this advent chain. I love how Advent Chains have become a December tradition in my household.
What are some of your family Christmas Traditions?
oh love !! We have Christmas ornaments (wood ones) with the names and a book that goes along with where that name is in scripture and why. The boy looked forward to doing it because I got him a tiny fake tree for himself !!
Ohhh! I think we are going to do a twist on this. Right now we are doing "thankful" turkey feathers. I have my four year old write one thing she is thankful for on a paper feather and my two year old tapes it to the turkey. We do this all month. I think we will do the same idea with the names of Jesus on a chain but have my four yr old write one every day until Christmas. Then by Christmas day we will have a completed chain. Yeppy! It's great writing and phonics practice for her.
I do a Name Of God wreath with my kids…but this year maybe I'll change to the chain. I also do an advent activity about Jesus everyday of advent. A few of my friends and I have set up a forum where we post ideas. Some of the things we did last year are posted if you want to look at the 2010 section! 🙂 http://adventactivities.activeboard.com/
Great idea!
This is so beautiful! Out of all the advent calendars on the blogosphere right now, this one is AMAZING. I am totally in love!
Thank you so much for sharing this Advent chain! I made an Advent calendar last year and used cups for each day. Counting down, we opened a cup and inside I had placed a symbolic household item. This year, I plan to celebrate using a Jesse Tree and now your gorgeous chain!
LOVE!!! Where do you come up with this awesome stuff? You are such a good mom 🙂
Oh I love it! We did a Names of Jesus study a few years ago. This would have been nice then. But then again I might just do it this year too! What a great idea. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see what else you have to share.
Brandy aka Lil' Momma
Homeschooling mom of a kid whose main educational goal is to one day beat her at hangman. (Ain't ever gonna happen, btw)
Those are beautiful. I'm not sure if I'll use them as an advent chain (as my kids are so young) or if I'll just make them for decorations, but thank you for sharing!
Just found your post on Twitter- I love this idea! My oldest has shown in an interest in the past about God's various names and doing something like this for the Christmas season each year would be great.
Thank you!
This is something we will definitely do this year! Thank you for such a beautiful activity.
These really are beautiful, Maureen! I love the concept, and I really appreciate you sharing your free printable. I featured your post and photo in my December 2011 Family Activities at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/11/29/december-2011-family-activities/
I love this idea! Thanks so much for sharing.
I have started to plan a names of Jesus activity for the 12 Days of Christmas (I have Christmas/December things planned) and I love your paper chain idea.. My little girl is 4 and a beginning reader, so your download isn't appropriate with the elaborate font, but the chain idea is wonderful as a presentation. Thank you also for the link to the Easy Fun School ideas, since that will help me choose which 12 names I want my little one to focus on. I had already thought of 12, but this is making me think more. Thank you again.
Thanks so much for sharing! I had bookmarked some other names of Jesus activities but this is my favorite so far – it's simple and elegant. I don't have the sparkly paper but I cut some larger scrapbook paper down to size. I was wondering – what do you use the blank strips for, if anything? Trying to figure out what to do with them!
Good question Karla! I included extra strips just in case you needed one to be tha hanger or if you wanted to add a different name.
I love this! I never knew my daughters name, Shiloh, was also a name of God.
I love this for advent too! If you want to link up to my advent party more than once, I think both ideas are awesome 🙂
I love, love, love this! Thank you so much for sharing. I haven't made any kind of paper chain since I was a kid, but I am definitely gonna make this one next year when my daughter is a little older.
I added this to my post on Jesse Tree ideas, thanks!
http://tammyisblessed.blogspot.com/2011/11/bonanza-of-jesse-tree-options.html
We loved making this, thank you for sharing it.
Miri
I shared your advent chain printables on my blog in a post about The Christmas Angel and The Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness that our family is doing. Stop over and check it out: http://trendzntraditions.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-angel.html
Our church is doing a Christmas presentation this year called Chain Reaction. Its similar to this but much bigger links. Afterwards we are having a dinner and birthday party for Jesus. I love this idea because I can make the smaller links and use them to decorate the fellowship hall where we eat. Btw. Did you know that the Lord has 365 names? Wow. One for each day of the year! I’m encouraging our church to look through the scriptures and find each name and through prayer, try to get to know our savior on each one of those names. Imagine how much more peace this scary world would have if we all did that? Blessings
I love this idea, but was wondering which version of the Bible you use for the names to correspond to the verses? We are typically in the ESV or NIV, but I’m thinking of using this as a craft for a group of people and would like to be sure that the names will show up in the version they read.
I’m pretty sure it will work with most versions– you could double-check. These were based on NIV.
Thank you for sharing your file! I was wondering if you could share the name of the font you used. It’s beautiful! We did a Names of Christ advent last year and used many of the same names you did. But, as you know, there are so many more and this is a tradition we want to do every year – eventually rotating through the list. I’d like to make and add a few different names to those you already have and keep the same font you have here.
Thanks!
I’m not sure– I know it was similiar to Scriptina. It might take me a few days to go look up the file.
I really want to make these, but only the first page is printing. Advice?
Are you printing out the Names of Jesus chain or the other Advent chain? I’m not sure what’s going on– I’m able to print it. Make sure you have the latest Adobe reader download. If you still have problems let me know.
This was featured in our Christmas Treasures series today – http://treasuring-christ.org/2012/12/06/christmas-treasures-day-six/ Blessings to you!
How did you print on the 12×12? Did you cut it to fit your printer? Also how many sheets if each color are needed? I’ve gone to every store in our area and not found this beautiful paper – so I’m going to place an order through your link – just need to know if I need to buy more than 1 book of the papers.
Thank you!
I don’t print on 12×12 paper. Yes, I cut it down to 8.5×11. You will need 2 pieces of paper for each color— I think I made sure I had a couple sheets extra just in case.
These are beautiful. Just one question; when you take them off each day, what do you do with them? Do you put them on your tree? Sorry, if that seems like a dumb question.
Blessings,
We read the verse and the name of Jesus and add it to a container so that we can review later. Many people don’t save the links but you could.
I just made these for my PreK-2 class to take home with them! Thank you so much!
You are welcome!
Is the cardstock 12X12 or is it available in 8 1/2 x 11?
Thank you for a WONDERFUL project to do with my
Sunday School Class.
I believe I purchased it as 8/12 x 11.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Beginning of Advent snuck up on me and your count down chains will be perfect for Sunday School this week!
You are welcome!
I am having trouble printing. I love this so much – this is the second year I’ve tried to use it, but I can never get it to print! Is it possible for you ti email it? Or do you have another suggestion? I’ve updated adobe and just can’t get it!
Have you downloaded the file and then tried to open up the file from your computer and then print? Sometimes printing from an open PDF file from the web doesn’t work.
I would love to subscribe to your blog however I only have my email for this and I don’t have google. I don’t have MyYahoo. How can I get the blog delivered to my email address? Please reply to my email thank you
Thanks so much for this! Exactly what I was hoping to find. Shared it on facebook too.
Meaningful and lovely. Thanks for sharing. I will enjoy walking through this with my kids!
The link for the “Name of Jesus Study” isn’t working. I’d hoped to maybe use that with this. Any suggestions? Thanks! 🙂
Sorry, I’m not affiliated with that site. It was working earlier this month. Not sure what happened. 🙁