30 Days with Mary and Joseph

This tri-fold hardcover book is wonderful in its simplicity. Our children take turns each night on who gets to put the sticker on, and we do it at the dinner table before eating/before lighting the Advent wreath. It also helps spark conversation about the season (whethr about Jesus' time or the present) during the meal. This is a nice way to strengthen the family.

This is our all-time favourite family advent calendar and we have given it to many friends with children over the years because our children enjoyed it so much.The book is a hardback and has two covers that open out to make a 19" tableau that is free-standing. Dry-cling stickers are provided for each day of December and small fingers will enjoy finding the right sticker and applying it to the appropriate space on the tableau. In the centre are spiral-bound pages that flip over the top of the tableau, one for each day, with a reading from the nativity story, a short, simple meditation and a prayer. Brilliant! We re-use it each year, just about to peel the stickers back on to the backing ready for December 1 (tomorrow)...

In these days of mass commercialization of Christmas, it was a lot of fun to read this book in December with my two children, ages 6 and 3. They couldn't wait to get to the "sticker" book each night! We alternated who got to put the sticker on the page. The stories were not preachy and were appealing to my children's ages. In fact, several times the story was pertinent to what happened in school that day and led to further discussion. The kids especially liked the short prayers and repeating them after me. The layout of the book was excellent. We did find 1 error in the book where the sticker and the words did not go together. Our biggest disappointment was finishing the book. I hope the author writes 1 for Lent. I was nervous that the book was going to be too religious and force feed religion but I was very happy to find it pertinent to my children's lives. I definitely recommend this book.

This unique book is a hands-on story book . One part of the Christmas story is presented each day in December. The kids place a sticker on the "mural" for each day. Every day's story sparks great family conversation based on biblical information. Helps kids understand what it may have felt like living during the time of Jesus's birth, what it may have felt like having an angel visit your home, how Mary may have felt carrying the child of God, etc. Written in easy, conversational tone. The kids couldn't wait to get to the next night's page.