Marking Advent

I love the season of Advent. Somehow it often catches me by surprise and I either get started late or completely miss the many ways we have to count the days of Advent. This year, I'm ready! Here are the ways our family will be marking Advent:

Advent Wreath and Christmas Hymn
Our family always has an Advent Wreath, and we light it each night at dinner time.
Last year, I realized our children were not learning Christmas Hymns anywhere, so we began singing them at the lighting of the wreath. We chose one hymn for each candle. So Week 1, we sing one hymn. Week 2, we'll add a second hymn. By Christmas eve, we have quite a round of singing before we get to eat--but our children now know the hymns by heart.
You may also want to choose one hymn and add a verse each week.

Advent Calendar
When I was growing up, my momma made me a hand-crafted advent calendar. She drew a picture of a big house and used pictures cut from christmas cards behind each door. I treasured it. Here is a template to make one for your family.
This year, I also succumbed and spent $5 at Aldi's on chocolate advent calendars for the boys. I've never had one of these before, but am pretty sure they will be appreciated.

Jesse Tree
I am not particularly familiar with the Jesse Tree but we will be giving the Sunday School children the supplies to make their own this year. Children will have 24 coloring-page ornaments that relate to a person in the Bible. Each day, they can color an ornament and hang it on their Jesse Tree (a bare stick stuck into a bucket of stones). The family can read a related biblical passage or just tell the story of that person as the children color their ornaments.

Last week in Sunday School the children created Advent Chains with the biblical passages on each link, most of which relate to the Jesse Tree ornaments. (The Chain, however, begin on Nov 27th and the Tree begins on Dec 1st. If we had a full-time Christian Ed director, we could correct these little issues. But we make do with what we have.)

What are your favorite Advent traditions? Is there something you'd like to try this year?