Monday, November 18, 2013

A Stocking for Jesus

With Christmas music already playing in stores, I thought it would be good to get the girls to focus on preparing for Jesus instead of making their lists for Santa.  There is a sweet little book called, "A Stocking for Jesus".  Here's what the book looks like because I can't even remember where I got it from.


In the story, the little girl is helping her family decorate for Christmas.  She notices stockings for everyone in the family, including the cat, but no stocking for Jesus.  Her and her mom go out and buy a beautiful stocking for Jesus.  Then throughout Advent, they write out what gifts they give to Jesus.  They visit someone in the nursing home, pray for the sick and donate their old clothes.  Then they wrap up all their papers in little boxes and put them in Jesus' stocking.

After the story, I encouraged the girls and moms to think about what they can do for Jesus for his birthday.  We went around the room with the girls calling out ideas.  Afterwards it was time to make our own stockings for Jesus which the girls will fill with their gifts to Jesus.

A few weeks ago, Joann Fabrics had a sale on their felt.  I bought some white and using my pinking shears, cut out stockings.  I used red thread and just did a quick stitch to sew them.  At the top, I added a little ribbon loop so that the girls could hang them up.  

I kept the supplies simple as it could get expensive to go to fancy.  The buttons came from a fabric outlet.  I attempted to dye them but Pinterest failed me.  I wound up spray painting them red.  I printed out "Jesus" onto the fabric ahead of time and sewed them onto the hearts for each girl.  The girls got to pick their buttons and ribbons.  It's so neat how each one of them was unique.

Here are some pictures of a few of them.