Create your own Advent Wreath with a few items gathered from a woodland walk. This is a great activity for all the family to be involved in as you prepare for Christmas, & the completed wreath offers a special way to countdown to Christmas as you mark each Sunday in Advent.
This is the first year we've made one together, but I can see it becoming a yearly tradition! To collect the greenery we set off on a family woodland walk, armed with secateurs & a good ol' Ikea bag. We were searching for holly, ivy, conifers & moss from our garden. With supervision my 3 year old learnt how to use & manipulate secateurs & managed to cut her chosen twigs.
To create the base of our wreath we used an old baking dish which we packed with lots of moss. If you don't have any in your garden, check out your local florist. To hold the moss in place I created criss cross design with florist tape over & around the dish. This also helped create a structure to hold our natural cuttings in place too.
Once we were happy with the shape we carefully added our five candles. If you need to hold these more secure just add a little florist tape.
To create the initial shape, I pushed sections of ivy around the bottom of the dish & then my preschooler got stuck in! Once we were happy with the result, we added a little water to the moss to help keep the greenery as fresh as possible.
Creativity, design, appreciation of nature, & a range of motor skills were all explored in this activity, which my girl was totally absorbed in. It was also a wonderful way to introduce Advent & explore why we count down those Sundays to Christmas Day.
The Advent Wreath now sits as a centerpiece on our kitchen table & we're lighting one new candle on each Sunday during Advent. For my girl the most exciting part of this is of course lighting & blowing out the candles!